The Serial Experiment
by The Bluefire Phoenix
Summary: I met her that night underneath the ruined wall. How little I knew at the time. Was she really meant to change the world? Could I let her change the world?
1. Layer I

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A _Project: Life Spark _Story...

_The Serial Experiment_

Layer I: Future Shock

In the early twenty-first century, a series of stories broke all around the world. Reports of children accomplishing fantastic feats. Telekinesis, telepathy, and other once thought physically impossible abilities began to be reliably recorded and scientifically analyzed. These were the first in what was eventually be dubbed Espers.

The few governments that were able to implement laws protecting Espers were still unable to stem the demand. It was a human gold rush. Many children were kidnapped and hauled away in the middle of the night by everyone from organized crime to sanctioned covert government agency. The United Nations was powerless to curb the growing humanitarian crisis.

A collation of university systems quickly organized an Underground Railroad to find and protect the children until an official response could be made. Many of those saved were taken to a little known weather research station built off the coast of Texas. Two years later a UN resolution was past after a veto from the Security Council was overruled by the General Assembly.

The resolution established the weather research station and the surrounding islands and water as UN property. The island with the research station was then expanded to an area about the size of Manhattan. It's purpose was to be a safe haven for Espers, where they could grow up and given a quality education free of persecution. The academic community was in turn able to research Espers under the watchful eyes of UN observers.

This formed the nucleus of what we now call Academy City. Fifteen years later city has grown and thanks to international support and a high concentration of top tier scientists into a global hub of innovation. Academy City is thought to be forty years ahead of any metropolitan area in the world. Despite the growth of the city, ninety percent of the city's population is made up of students. Almost three-fourths of those students have displayed potential to be or been confirmed as an Esper. This ratio has remained more or less constant since the founding.

It was crap. Total crap. I closed the word document and placed my head on my desk. Every year it was the same damn paper. Write the history of Academy City. It's important that you understand it.

Yeah, we get it. You've ingrained it into my head since I got here! I was going into high school next year for crying out loud. I knew the history backwards! What more was there to say?

My email beeped, bringing back to Earth. Weird for ten o'clock at night. Not so weird was the fact it was from Avri. I sighed and opened it up.

"Dear Ms. Mikoto Misaka (ACID# 299792-4-58)," I read aloud in the smarmy, condescending, faux-sweet tone Avri always used. "You've been noted for being two hours over your average log time. May we direct you towards some assistance?"

I shook my head and replied no. It would be a safe bet to say Academy City was almost like another world to an outsider. Here everyone was connected in a way the Internet could only dream of. Academy City was built around the Wired. I didn't know the exact differences but as I understand, the Wired was a much more complicated, much more powerful system.

My eyes started to feel heavy. Outside my apartment window the city bustled.

When I arrived in Academy City about seven years ago, the city part of the name was a joke. Half the districts were still under construction. None of the streets were finished. Most of the students lived in a barracks.

Now the place was alive. Large wind turbines intermixed with large office buildings. The streets were now the cleanest and most well maintained on the planted. Massive apartment complexes now dominated the skyline, housing nearly three million students that attended over forty-two thousand schools.

In a short amount of time, this place went from being the dump I was left at to the world leader in innovation and more importantly my home. Hell, I had lived in this apartment for nearly three years now. It was covered in a thick layer of lived in. All the nicks in the walls, oddly angled furniture, dated boy band posters, and tons random of pictures were the works of a home.

I got up and walked outside on the balcony. The streets were still pretty busy. It was Friday, so curfew was lifted. The night was still young and the electric sound of the street below rose up to me. My phone started to ring. Kuroko Shirai was calling me. She was my friend and roommate. We were both from Japan and had been sent to Academy City at an early age, Kuroko arriving a year after me.

"What's up Kuroko?" I greeted in Japanese. Crap!

"What's up Kuroko?" I asked again in English. I heard the roar of a crowd come through the speaker.

"Hey, Sissy! Where are you?" she yelled.

"In the room, why?" I answered.

"I thought you said you were meeting us at Cyberia!" Kuroko shouted. Oh, so that was the noise. "Come on Sissy, you promised!"

Damn it, she was right. How'd I forget? I was supposed to meet her and her friend from Judgment tonight.

"Right, I'll…I'll be there in a bit. Hang on," I said. I quickly hung up the phone and ran to my closet. Fashion was never my strong suit, not helped by the more utilitarian clothing that they offered in most of the city's shops. Sure there was a mall, but it had few stores open.

My wardrobe consisted of three sets my school's uniform and a few basic outfits for weekends. I threw one on, just a red skirt and a black and white striped t-shirt. Then I put on a jacket featuring my school's logo. It took a minute to get down stairs from the seventeenth floor.

The apartment was a multi-school hub. On any given day there were a dozen different uniforms to be seen in the lobby and rec rooms. I wanted to stay at my school's dorm, but I would have gotten off the waiting list this year and there was no guarantee of acceptance. Though I bet they'd have let me in.

I was content to stay with Shirai. She'd deny it, but I think she pulled some strings to room with me.

Out on the streets the city was pumping. Busses headed for other parts of the city or arriving here lined the streets. Groups of students walked about chatting amongst themselves. I headed south, towards Cyberia.

It was a club that had sprung up recently, and despite being popular it still had a small following. Kuroko had found it a few weeks ago and she had been going there almost every week since. I heard it was quite the place, playing the best underground music and serving the best food in the city.

I noticed a girl standing in an alleyway when I was about halfway to the club. She was mostly illuminated by the bright lights of the city, but she was also partially encased by pitch black dark alley right behind her.

Her light brown eyes stared vacantly into the street. She had short brown hair save for a long forelock that framed the left side of her face and was held together by an x-shaped clip. The girl wore a black school uniform I didn't recognize. She seemed to be in a daze.

"Are you alright?" I asked the girl. I brushed my hair back. The girl blinked. She started to breath heavily. She broke off, running back into the alley. I ran after her.

I found her after a few minutes, collapsed on her knees and trapped by a gang of older students. They were jeering and taunting her. Rage started to fester in the pit of my stomach. Sparks started to fill the air around me.

"Come on little girl; why don't you come with us," one of the girl's tormentors said. He had a British accent.

"Yeah we'll show you a good time," another added. That one had a Spanish accent, probably from Columbia if I was hearing him right.

I marched forward, calming the electric storm that was brewing around me. "Hey!" I shouted. The boys turned to me. One let out a sharp catcall whistle. Every one of their faces grew an ever expanding smirk. "Leave her alone," I growled.

"Aren't you a pretty thing? Tell you what: why don't you come with us and we'll leave this one alone," the leader offered. One of his goons put a hand in front of the leader.

"She's wearing a Glashow Middle School jacket, man. They don't take anyone less than a Level Three. Maybe we shouldn't mess with her," he whispered in a panic.

"What does that prove? It's just a jacket," the leader shrugged off.

The air around me began to pop with blue static bolts. My display seemed to intimidate some of the punks. But the leader took a step towards me. "So what'll it be, love?" he delivered his ultimatum. He held out his hand as if he were some country gentleman showing his breeding to a potential mate.

We were now within a couple meters. Perfect. I reached out my own hand in a faux gesture of acceptance.

When you go through the elementary school system in Academy City you are taught that an Esper was just a person with a certain special ability. It wasn't until middle school that you begin to under stand the nuts and bolts of what an Esper really was. See in fact, an Esper was nothing more than a person who could manipulate a law of physic in a particular manner. For example, someone with pyrokinesis isn't simply creating fire: they are heating up a group of oxygen molecules in a particular area and can "move" the fire by shifting their focus from one place to another; creating the illusion of controlling fire. A Telekinetic was merely adding a new force to the forces already acting on an object and a teleporter merely changed the location of select matter in space-time.

A smirk formed on my face. My fingers began to tingle. The alley lit up in white light. Volt upon volt of electricity appeared to pour out of my digits. I was an Electromaster, capable of manipulating, changing, and creating electrical charges around my body. This was a basic example of my skills. Simply create a few positive charges at the tip of my fingers and an equal number of negative charges on his hand. Set the right voltage, and wham: one fried creep served up toasty.

The punk started to twitch underneath my onslaught and I released him from my electric grip. He fell to his hands and knees. His friends had already run away. "I head—I heard there was an Electromaster at Glashow, a Level Five said to be one of the greatest to ever go through Academy City. You're her aren't you?" he croaked out.

I nodded. His eyes widened. He unceremoniously got up and limped off. I walked over to the girl who was still blankly cowering by an incomplete brick wall. "Are you alright?" I asked as I knelt beside her.

She recoiled at my attempt to touch her. I bit my lip. "I'm just trying to help. My name is Mikoto Misaka, what's yours?" I asked.

The girl perked up. "Mik-Mikoto Misaka?" She stammered.

"Yes, that's me. What's your name?"

"My name? My name is…my name is..." the girl started repeating in a quiet voice. I gave a reassuring nod. This wasn't good.

"Do you have any personal ID or a cellphone?" I asked. That should clear things up. The girl checked her pockets and shook her head.

Not good, not good. "Okay. Where do you live?" I asked trying to stay calm.

"I…I don't know," the girl whispered. She grabbed her forehead and started rocking back and forth. "I don't know."

"Do you have any friends? A place to stay?"

Her nails stared digging into her skin. "I don't…remember. I don't remember anything except," she said. Her brown eyes were widened. I gently grabbed her hands and brought them down. "Except. Except."

"My name is Lain," she said. A rush of energy fell over me. A sparks rushed through my core, like something was awakening deep inside.

"Let's go back to my apartment and we'll get this sorted out, okay Lain?" I said. I helped Lain get to her feet. She nodded.

I helped her back to my apartment. Lain sat down on the couch. She nervously started to look around. I brought up a school directory on the Wired from my laptop. It might take a while but there had to be a record of her somewhere.

The door banged open sending Lain up to the ceiling for a moment. Kuroko stormed in with her wavy, tawny ponytails furiously bouncing at the sides of her head. Her feet pounded the floor as hard as her heels allowed her. "How could you stand me up like that Sissy!" she shouted. Her eyes locked in on Lain. "And you left me there for her!"

Oh god, I thought she was over that stupid crush thing. Now she was becoming plain possessive. Great.

Lain started to tremble. I stood up. "I'm sorry Kuroko. Truly I am. But this girl needed help. As an Judgment officer you should understand helping someone," I calmly started and finished with a growl. Kuroko frowned. Her gaze drifted away from me to her feet.

"I—I'm sorry. I just wanted you to meet my friends and have a good time," she said. She looked over at my laptop. Her eyes sparked. "Wait, I think I'll be able to help you!"

Kuroko pulled out her cellphone. "Uiharu, we have a mission!" she shouted. "Yes I know the time, but it's for Sissy. Meet at the office tomorrow at ten o'clock sharp. Yeah, go ahead and bring Saten too. Good night," She said and hung up the phone

"Thanks Kuroko," I said. I gave her a thumbs-up. Kuroko went over to Lain and offered her hand.

"Sorry about that. Sometimes I can't control it. I'm Kuroko Shirai," she said. Lain nervously took her hand.

"I'm…uh, Lain," the other girl said. Kuroko vanished as their hands touch! A thud sounded near the front door. Kuroko was lying face down on the floor. I rushed over to her.

"What happen?" I asked. Kuroko struggled to her feet. She was breathing heavily.

"I don't…did I? Oh, never mind, we should get going," she said. "We should get something for Lain to sleep in."

That night Lain slept on the couch. Kuroko knocked on my door before she entered it.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Did you feel something strange, when you talked to Lain?" Kuroko asked. I scratched my cheek. I remembered that jolt when I touched her.

"Yeah, I guess so. Did you really teleport yourself across the room today?"

Kuroko bit her lip. "I don't know. I just hope we figure out where she belongs soon."

She walked away to go to bed. I joined her in the land of dream shortly afterwards.

We made it down to Kuroko's office the next morning. Lain was back in her school uniform, in case someone on the streets recognized her.

Waiting at the office was a girl with short black hair and a beautiful array of flowers in her hair dressed in street clothes. She was hard at work on a computer. Napping on a couch was another girl with long black hair. They both looked Japanese.

I wasn't surprised. Most of us gravitated towards people from the same country of origin. We could speak the same language, had similar customs, and so on. Though in such a natural melting pot, it was hard not to feel like we were losing touch with our old homes. Kuroko could barely hold a conversation in Japanese anymore.

I couldn't remember the last time Kuroko used Japanese seeing as English was the lingua franca in Academy City. Hell, I doubt I could read it any more.

The girl with the flowers on her head stood up and ran up to me. "You're…you're Mikoto Misaka!" she squealed with joy. Her English sounded flawless. She most have been brought here pretty young.

"Ye…yeah," I answered.

"It's such an honor to wait! Oh where are my manners? I'm Kazari Uiharu!" the girl rapidly added.

Uiharu had quite a bit of energy for someone who was out partying all last night. "It's alright. I'm pleased to meet you Uiharu," I greeted. She looked over at her companion and ran over to her. She not so gently woke her up. Uiharu brought her to her feet.

The new girl rubbed her eyes. "Ruiko Saten," she greeted. I nodded and offered my hand. Saten didn't seem too pleased but took it anyway, with a sort of snide smile.

"And just so you know I'm a Level Zero," Saten added for no reason. Okay.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mikoto Misaka," I nonchalantly introduced myself with a pleasant smile. Saten seemed confused as we shook hands.

"Um…yeah," Saten said. Uiharu turned to Kuroko.

"So what's up?" she asked.

Kuroko gingerly pushed Lain forward. "This is Lain. She's kind of lost. We were hoping you could help us find where she belongs," she said. Lain blinked, then sat down with Saten back on the couch.

"Okay, let's see," Uiharu said she returned to her computer. "Lain…Lain, do you have a last name?" she asked. Lain shook her head. Uiharu frowned as she continued typing.

"Okay, we'll use the uniform database first. Searching by first name would take hours," Uiharu explained. "We have a hit!" she declared after another minute of searching. I walked over and looked at the results.

"St. Germaine's All Girls Middle School in District Eight?" I read aloud. The uniform model was a perfect match to Lain's. The black jacket, the plaid skirt, and the badge all added up. "Is Lain a student there?"

"I haven't done a student search yet. Germaine's files aren't available for public access, but I just need to enter my Judgment clearance code and that so it should…what?" Uiharu gasped. A pop up window appeared. "An Avri just denied my access!"

"Which one?" Kuroko asked. Uiharu shrugged.

"I'm trying to do a root search to find it, but I just keep getting bounced to servers all around the city!" she shouted. Her fingers were patiently waiting to make her next move. Her eyes twitched over each and every line as report after report popped up.

"Should we call Root?" I asked. Uiharu shook her head.

"No, what ever Avri is doing this has basically back hacked us and is making it look like we're attempting an attack on the whole system."

I swallowed a lump in my throat. Well crap. "Shut it off then, I don't want us to get in trouble," I said. Uiharu quickly disconnected and turned to Lain.

"I'm sorry, but it looks someone doesn't want us to access those files," she said.

"Maybe we should go by there? See what they know?" Saten recommended.

"Yeah! We can meet up here and make a day of it," I added. "We can go to this new stand opening on 32nd Street! They have hotdogs and they're giving away a free, uh," I stopped myself from finishing that statement. "Mustard, free mustard!" I added.

Saten cocked her head. "Don't hotdog stands always give out free mustard?" she asked. Kuroko snapped her fingers.

"You just want that free promotional Gekota charm don't you Sissy?" Kuroko pointed out. I hung my head. They were so cute and green and would be perfect for my collection. Alas, they knew my shame. Let them ridicule me until I am but a corpse strewn upon the battlefield of life.

Saten laughed a bit. "Sure, let's go," she said. Saten you are a saint amongst mortals.

Lain nervously clutched her hands together as the five of us. "So Lain, what do you like?" Saten asked. Lain shook her head. "You are a quiet one aren't you?"

Lain nodded. Saten put a hand on her shoulder. "Do you have an Esper Power?" Saten continued. Damn, maybe if we had asked that we could have found her in another database. Lain shook her head. "It's okay. Us Level Zeroes should stick together."

We found the hot dog stand. It was built in a small park that was pretty busy. Uiharu and Kuroko went off to get seats while Saten, Lain, and I got the hotdogs. I kept Lain in front of me. She might need some coaching to get through this.

Lain was up. Here we go. She raised a single finger. The man at the stand understood. He brought out the hotdog and placed it in a bun. "Mustard? Ketchup?" he asked. Lain shook her head and placed the money I gave her on the counter. She took the food along with the adorable frog mascot that was…Gekota.

"Last one kid, way to go," the man commented. I felt my heart give out. My knees completely collapse underneath. I barely kept myself up with my arms.

Lain turned around and blinked. She bowed down and handed me the Gekota. "Here," she said. I looked up at Lain. Though her face was still expressionless, there was this certain warmth to it. I grabbed her arm.

"Do you mean it?" I pleaded. Lain just nodded. I grabbed it and stared at all its plastic glory. "Thank you Lain. Thank you! Thank you!" I squealed.

"I guess Misaka likes the Gekotas," Saten commented.

"I guess," Lain quietly replied.

Once lunch was through we made it down to District Eight. It was the smallest district in the city, consisting of twenty blocks along Seventh Street in the southwest of the town. There all six of the private religious schools could be found along with a few churches and a mosque too. Most of us referred to the area as Church Street.

The schools on Church Street required a parent's permission to attend versus just advisor approval and test scores that the other institutions required. That plus ridiculously high standards made them extremely hard for students to get in.

St. Germaine's was about halfway down the street. Hopefully we'd get some answers. Who was the girl with asymmetrical hair who called herself Lain?

I kept asking myself that as we approached the dark, gothic architecture that made up the administration building of St. Germaine's All Girls Middle School. Fierce stone gargoyles stared down at us from their perches. This could only go well.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: Hello to what I can assume is going to be a small number of readers. I don't know, I can't see the future. Side note, Avri is pronounced like the name Avery.

Normally I state the objective and themes of a project here, so why break tradition. Okay one word: identity. Specifically what makes us...us. Not in the _Ghost in the Shell_ way where it's all existential and in your mind. More of the actual stuff of identity like origin, environment, people, and possessions.

If you didn't pick it up at the start of the story, I nuked the cannon. I nuked it good. That is probably a poor choice of word considering I am working off of two anime shows. Sorry if I offended you, but I couldn't think of a quicker visual shorthand for mass destruction.

It's not that I don't like the cannon of the original works, I just like to re-imagine them in someway.

So I love _Serial Experiment Lain__. _*checks profile picture* duh. If you're worried about the melodrama, you shouldn't because Lain's here and it can only get stranger. But due to my aversion to spoilers, I won't post my thought on the show here out of consideration for anyone who hasn't seen the awesomeness of Lain yet. Don't know why, that's just how I am. But if you want to hear my opinion on SEL just ask for it in a review or in a PM and I'd gladly share my interpretation.

Can I just say this about _A Certain Scientific Railgun_, it gets flipping weird near the end apparently. I enjoyed the anime though. It was good show, that is all.

Well that takes care of that. Have a comment or an idea you think I should explore, leave a review and tell me what you think!

Until next time, it turns out that Vader is Harry's father and left him under the protection of Gandalf in the Matrix {Somebody make that happen, now}


	2. Layer II

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer II: A Gap in the System

The interior of the administration building was as medieval as the exterior gave. Our steps echoed around the grey stone walls. The whole place seemed horribly lit. There was just enough light to illuminate case after case of awards, plaques, and pictures lining the hallway.

A few staff members were walking around. Some even quietly chatted amongst themselves. Their steps icily crept up my spine. They all wore long black clothing that hovered a few centimeters above the floor.

Not a speck of dust or dirt dared show itself in the sterile hallway. The air felt heavy and smelled of chemicals. Everything was cold.

We found the office we were looking for. It was filled with antiques and trinkets from all over the world. The secretary was a black haired woman with long fingernails and stony lips

She was speaking with an Anti-Skill officer dressed in her SWAT armor and a technician from Root. Anti-Skill was the real law in Academy City. They ran the physical security for the city. Everything from special events to directing traffic was under their jurisdiction, if they didn't dump the assignment on Judgment of course. The organization spun off of the original United Nations Peace Keepers that protected student from protesters and terrorists during the early years.

The first Anti-Skill Officers were teachers that volunteered to support the Peace Keepers when they were stretched thin. Now that the Peace Keepers were gone, every teacher and most of the staff in Academy City was required to be at least a reserve officer.

Root was the Information Technology master of Academy City. It started with the development of the Wired a few years after the city was founded. The network eventually became too large for Root to properly monitor.

That's why they introduced the Avri units about seven years ago. They were simple Artificial Intelligence capable of monitoring the various layers of the Wired as local administrators. I bet Uiharu knew more and I'd have to ask her about it sometime.

Uiharu and I sat down outside the office for the Officer and the technician to finish talking. Kuroko and Saten walked Lain around the hallway. If we were lucky someone would recognize her or she would recognize something in the school.

I looked around at the general opulence of the school. It was incredible to just look at it. Uiharu started to scratch her head. She pulled out her phone and started tapping away. Her eyebrows scrunched together. A blur erupted where her thumbs were supposed to be.

"What are you looking for?" I asked. Uiharu bit her lip.

"Lain, her name, I swear I've heard it somewhere before."

"Well I imagine you've met someone with that name before," I suggested.

Uiharu shook her head. She kept working for another minute. A defeated sigh passed her lips. "Never mind," she said.

The Anti-Skill officer finished talking and walked out. She had long dark hair tied in a messy pony tail and steel blue eyes. Her name tag read Kimball.

She smiled at us and walked on. I stood up before Uiharu. The others joined us. My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest.

The secretary smiled at our approach. "How y'all doing?" she greeted with a thick Texas drawl. Most of the support staff were locals from the mainland. She saw Lain, her eyebrow rose up her forehead.

Lain turned her eyes to her feet. "Are y'all dropping off a new student?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "We aren't sure. Could you see if there is a girl named Lain supposed be attending class here?" I asked. The woman blinked. She locked her fingers locked together.

"Lain, you said? Let me see," the woman said. She started typing into her computer.

Her fingers went up to her forehead. "No we don't have any student by that name. But there is an empty entry around where the L names start," she said. She sounded confused. Her large hair quivered a bit. "That may be an error. Someone tried to hack into our system earlier and it's just now coming back together."

"Why would someone try and hack into here?" Saten innocently asked. She couldn't be serious, it was us!

The secretary looked like we had killed someone. Random curls popped out of her blonde bush of hair. I think she might have even twitched a little.

"This school houses daughters from some of the most prominent members of society. Their safety is one of our top priorities. We even have special permission from the City Board to keep our records private," she declared.

I nervously scratched the back of my head. "Well thank you for clearing that up. Heh, heh," I said. We quickly got out of the school.

Lain was totally downcast. None of us could blame her. Our first lead turned out pretty cold. She played with her long bang.

Saten snapped her fingers. "What if someone is trying to hide her!" she suggested. Kuroko shook her head.

"What makes you think that?" she said. Saten just shook her head.

"Think about it: she shows up with no memory of who she, wearing the uniform of a really elite school, whose records cannot be accessed!"

Uiharu raised her hand. "Then why'd they wipe her mind?" she asked. Saten appeared behind Lain, placing her hands in orbit around Lain's head. Saten's fingers fluttered around.

"Because Lain knew too much of an evil organization's most secret plan!" Saten spookily stated.

Uiharu and Lain looked horrified. Kuroko rubbed her temple. I thought it was funny in a crazy; you're kidding kind of way. Saten gave Lain hug from behind.

"But don't worry, we'll keep her safe," Saten added. She smirked. Lain still looked panicked but a wave of relief washed over her.

"Okay, Okay," I said all while trying not to laugh. "We aren't going to figure out what the deal with Lain is in one day. So I think I we need to figure out where Lain should stay and get her some new cloths."

Looking at all of us, all of our clothes would be too big for her. We only had one problem.

"That's a good idea…but I don't have any allowance left," Saten glumly said. She let go of Lain. Uiharu nodded in agreement.

"Me too," she said.

"Same here," I said.

Every student receives a two hundred and fifty United States Dollars in allowance plus a meal plan every month. It was possible to get more with advisor approval but for the most part that was it. However that money doesn't go away at the end of the month. My eyes fell on Kuroko.

She fiercely shook her head. "Don't look at me…I burned up all my money two week ago," she quickly stated. Her hands waved wildly across her chest.

"Ah, ah, ah. I know you've been saving up for that perverted corset you saw in that girly mag I found under the couch last week," I growled. Kuroko's face turned bright red.

"No I haven't…I've been saving it for an emergency," she attempted to save her ass. We all stared at her. Lain confusedly looked at us. "You know like…this."

We took a bus down to District Eleven, the entertainment district. The mall, the clubs, the arcades, and other forms of entertainment permeated the area. There were no schools in the district and it was where most of the city's private businesses were located.

The place was way more packed for midday Saturday than I thought it would be. On the bus, Uiharu and Lain sat in front of me and Saten while Kuroko pouted in the back. Saten was more relaxed around me. She sprawled her limbs out over her seat.

"Almost...no it's gone," Uiharu muttered.

"Excuse me...Ms. Uiharu but what are you doing?" Lain asked. Uiharu perked up.

"I'm trying to find the Avri that blocked us from accessing their server," she answered.

"Avri?" Lain quietly worded.

"Yeah, they're Artificial Intelligences that monitor the Wired. Hook them up to a server and bam, instant admin," Uiharu enthusiastically said.

I leaned forward. "Wasn't that just a security measure?" I asked.

"Not one a school would implement. St. Germaine's server is supposed to be private. We should have gotten a login prompt not thrown around the city."

"So someone was straight up preventing us from even getting to the server?" Saten chipped in.

"May I try?" Lain asked.

"Uh, I don't think you have the skills or experience," Uiharu politely stated. Lain graciously raised up her hand. Uiharu sighed and gave the girl her phone. "Please don't get into trouble."

Saten and I leaned forward. Kuroko climbed over the seats to join us. Lain stared at the screen. Her breathing ceased. She hit a button, then another. The girl's thumbs disappeared. Lain herself disappeared into the machine.

Lain sighed after about a minute. "Found it," she said. She handed back the phone to Uiharu. The flowered girl cocked an eyebrow.

"Wow, that's…that's more than I thought we'd get!" she shouted. "How did you do this?"

"I just...talked to it, an Avri, that's all," Lain said.

"This is incredible. I would never have thought to follow that path! The only thing is I don't have access to this address. If I'm reading this right it is a district level Avri, maybe higher."

"What do you mean?" Saten asked.

"As a member of Judgment, I can access the basic information of all Avri units within my jurisdiction: its physical location, its Root technician, and its security logs. If I want anything more or information about a unit outside of my boundaries I'd need permission from Root and Anti-Skill to get it," Uiharu stated.

"Do you think you'll be able to get permission?" I asked. Uiharu shrugged.

"Hard to say, I'll send the request Monday," she said.

"What about hacking in?" Kuroko asked.

Uiharu bit her lip. "I'd rather not but I think I can if it comes to that."

"Maybe we'll figure out who's hiding Lain," Saten suggested. I nodded as the bus came to a stop.

We got out and began a lovely afternoon of shopping. Outside the mall was a trio of high school street performers. They were in the middle of an intricate dance, dressed in flashy elaborate costumes.

The central dancer was from Middle East, her long dark hair tied in a bun. She was an aquakinetic, making a stream of water intricately snake around her body in step with her movement.

Her partner on the left was a Hispanic man capable of bending the light around him in such a way that there appeared to multiple copies of him. His circular movements created a kaleidoscope like appearance around the area.

The other dancer was a blonde electromaster. She was levitating several golden chains and metal trinkets around her. I could feel the magnetic field she was manipulating. She was struggling to keep it evenly distributed around her. I thought to help her but I thought not to because her internal battle made her performance that much more impressive.

They ended the show with a crescendo, each dancer striking a final pose before releasing their concentration. The students and others that had gathered around started to clap. My group joined in. Lain was a little slow on the situation but quietly added a few claps to the cheering.

"Wow, that was awesome," Saten said. She sounded a little…jealous maybe?

I smiled and we got going. Everyone had a good time trying stuff along with the rest of us. Lain looked like she was having a good time. I noticed that she kept taking glances at Uiharu's phone.

It took a few quote-unquote gentle shocks to get her to take out her wallet. Then Saten and Uiharu forced her to hand her allowance card over to the cashier.

Lain ended up in with a black shirt and red skirt as her primary outfit along with a yellow jacket. She got a beanie with a bear face on it as well as some other things.

After that we parted ways. Saten and Uiharu took another bus back to District Twelve and Lain, Kuroko, and I returned to District Seven.

That night someone knocked on my door. I opened it. Lain was standing there, looking at her feet.

"Mi-Mikoto, I'd like-like a computer," she whispered.

"Um, sure," I said. It wasn't a difficult request. I just needed to fill out a requisition form my school, and that was all.

"Thank you," she whispered. She walked back to her couch and I closed the door. Hopefully Uiharu would get permission to access that Avri soon. I wanted to learn more about Lain than probably Lain. If that were possible.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: Lain, doing inexplicable things since 1998.

Two of thirteen down. And It's all outlined. Like right now. I am never that organized. _K__nighthood _didn't get fully mapped out until last Monday.

One of the problems I realized I would have to address with the revamped Academy City. That is, diversity. Seeing as the original took place in Japan most of the characters were Japanese. Now that we've made the setting an international, it would too coincidental if every character we met was from Japan. What I'm getting at is that some characters will either be omitted or replaced with an analogue. Sorry, I wish it didn't have to be this way but I want to give the most realistic portrayal of Academy City as possible.

So with the Status quo established, we can start the real fun of totally messing with it. What do you think so far? Have a theory about what's going on or what's going to happen? Leave a review or send me a PM to tell me.

Until next time, you know _The Matrix_ came out after Lain right {And they still don't make sense}


	3. Layer III

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer III: Breaking the Barrier of the Mind

It had been three days since I met the mysterious girl named Lain. Unfortunately the progress my friends and I had made in finding out more had been slowed by the end of the weekend. Classes weren't going to take themselves. Most of my thoughts that Monday was on Lain.

Lain had taken up residence in the apartment Kuroko and I shared. She refused to sleep in my room, preferring the couch. Once the computer I requested arrived, Lain had been in a much cheerier mood. I wish I could say the same.

I was waiting in the girls' locker room with everyone else. We were dressed out for gym. Everyone's face was marred with fear and anxiety.

A woman in a blue plastic hazard suit entered the room. "Ms. Misaka, we are ready for you now," she said. Her words broke my trance. I stood up and stretched my arms.

It was Diagnostic Day. The day every student stayed two hours after classes were over to be examined by a bunch of scientist types and have their power level recorded. I walked down the hall with the technician, out the front door to the pool. Several more technicians like the woman were setting up special plastic equipment behind a special barrier. They all wore the same blue plastic hazard suits.

One of them handed me a bunch of small metal discs. Wow they weren't even going to put me through the paces this time around. That was nice. Making things dance and levitate was fun sure. But I was in the mood for something a little more destructive

An air raid siren sounded. The technicians scrabbled behind the barrier. "Now testing Misaka, Mikoto ACID# 299792-4-58 for Level Five confirmation," someone said over the loud speaker.

Go time!

I picked a metal disc a gently placed it on my thumb and index finger as though I were going to flip it up.

One question I got asked a lot as an Esper and especially as a high level Esper was: what was it like to do my thing. It was…like I was flying. It came from the rush of energy that washed over my body when my subconscious crunched thousands of calculations while I forced my consciousness onto reality. It was there, in my own little world, that I felt kilometers above the ground. There I was _untouchable_.

The metal disk launched from my hand. It left my hand at about five millionths the speed of light, somewhere over the speed of sound, accelorating along a straight magnetized path way I created. The boom roared out over the land. Water rose up in a massive plum. Even the earth shook a bit.

Next shot loaded. Fire! The disk raced out of my fingers towards the target, leaving behind another small disaster. Every time I did one of these stupid tests I always held something back. I wasn't scared. I mean I wouldn't be Level Five if I was.

No, I just pulled my punches and it may sound stupid but I think it's because I remember my mom whenever I power up. Mostly I go back to a time when I got into fight with a kid in a playground back when I lived in Japan. I don't remember why we were fighting or even the kid's name. All I could recall was that won pretty handedly.

Mom yanked me off of the other kid was huddled on the ground. She told me that just because I had power; it didn't give me the right to abuse it. I had since taken those words to heart.

To be fair, if I did go all out the pool would be nothing but a crater. I sent another disk flying into the water leaving the largest concussive in its wake yet.

I lined up my final shot. It hit the target dead center. Another air raid siren roared over the roar.

"Railgun test complete, average theoretical yield: 6.09E-5 megatons. Effective range one hundred and fifty meters. Average shot deviation, seven centimeters. Level five confirmed," an announcer said over the PA. I sighed and walked away. Some girls swarmed me as I walked back into the locker room.

They gave me congratulations, back pats, and a million questions. I politely rebuffed most of them and made it back to my locker. It took me a minute to get back into my uniform. Getting out was far harder to exit than it was getting in. More girls had arrived while I was dressing.

Kuroko was probably still out testing by the lack of a lecherous stare aimed at me. I carefully weaved out of the room and walked over to the observation level to watch the other kids. My suspicions were confirmed.

My pink haired friend was finishing up the Level Three teleporting tests. According to her it was actually fairly simple. She merely had to move an object made of multiple materials to a specific target down range. This was apparently a difficult task for lower leveled teleporters, and separated a Level Two from a Level Three.

Kuroko merely laid her hands on the object. It vanished into thin air and reappeared thirty meters down range. A technician ran over the area where the object was with a metal detector. He gave a thumbs-up and walked down to the object. He did some more measurements before giving another thumbs-up.

I wasn't supprised. Kuroko walked up to the technician. She started pleading with him. My eyebrow rose. What was she up to? The technician shook his head. Kuroko clasped her hands together.

The technician nodded and walked about ten meters down range. He drew an X on the ground, walked back to Kuroko, and drew another one by her. Kuroko stood on the X.

She was going for a Level four Status? She failed miserably last time she tried. A Level Three teleporter could move small living things, such as a mouse up to about a small dog, without a problem. However a level four could move larger living things, like a large dog up to an average size man, including themselves. I saw her do it the night we met Lain.

I don't know how or why, but Kuroko could do it. She stepped onto the X. She clenched her fist.

Her body began to flicker! Kuroko dissipated, reappearing at about where the first X was. She then returned using the same method.

The technician gave a thumbs-up. Kuroko turned to me. I gave an approving nod. She teleported up to me.

"Sissy! Did you see me do it!" she shouted. She wrapped me up in her arms. Careful Kuroko, I'd hate to charcoal you on your big day.

"That was awesome Kuroko," I said. I began to pry her off before her hands started moving any further down.

"I never thought I'd do it! But today…today it I broke the barrier of my mind!" she squealed. I finally got her off of me.

"Well I think we should go out for a nice dinner tonight," I said.

"Oh Sissy, I knew my feminine charms would win you over eventually!" She declared as she tried for another hug only to run smack into my palm.

"With Lain and Saten and Uiharu too," I added. Kuroko shoulders slumped quite a bit. "But it will be my treat."

That perked her up. "Oh you do care!" she cried out. Her arms reached out again.

"Okay, okay. Get dressed so we can go home and set this up," I said.

We were on our way back, wearing our school uniforms, to the apartment when I swear I heard something. It sounded like excessive background chatter creeping out of somewhere all around me. But the street Kuroko and I were on was pretty empty. The only other people around were a few people on their laptops at a café.

It certainly wasn't a radio transmission. I learned to block those out years ago.

"Sissy, what's wrong?" Kuroko asked.

I looked around. "Can't you hear them?" I asked. The chatting grew louder! I started clawing my forehead.

"There is no one here, Sissy."

An electric storm erupted around me. The bolts popped in every direction. I couldn't see anything but a thousand flapping lips whispering empty nonsense in my brain.

It was all around me. I saw a few faceless people walk up. They stared at me with absent eyes as they moved on. Go away! Go away!

Kuroko was staring at me like she just saw a ghost. My vision started to blur. I think Kuroko said something but I wasn't sure. There were hundreds of featureless people walking all around. Amongst the crowd was a single girl with a face.

No, not just a girl! It was Lain, with her strange asymmetric hair lightly dancing in some non-existent wind. She was smiling and waving at me? Her lips moved but I couldn't hear her over the roar of the crowd. The streets began to bend and blur into unrecognizable forms. One of the faceless pedestrians passed in front of Lain and she vanished.

The scene grew stranger and more fluid each passing second. People started walking up walls. New illegible signs began popping up all over the place. The voices grew ceaselessly louder!

"Just shut up!" I shouted. "Shut up! Go away! Shut up! Shut up! Please just make it stop! Make it stop!"

The strange mannequin people looked at me, fell silent, and started to fade from sight. The scenery began to untwist and the strange signs disappeared. I braced myself against my knees. My chest heaved for air. Sweat or tears rolled down my face. Oh god what the hell was that!

"Are you alright, Sissy?" Kuroko finally asked.

"Fine. I'm…fine. Don't worry."

"Are you sure? That was quite the panic attack."

"I don't know. But I can handle it."

Kuroko nodded, but she I knew she didn't buy it. But she wasn't dumb enough to press the issue. The rest of the journey home was a mostly normal affair. While my heart refused to calm, I didn't slip away again. I was glad there weren't a lot of people around to witness my little outburst.

We entered the living room to find Lain had busied herself in our absence by building a new computer out of the one I got for her and other, newly acquired parts that were strewn out all over the floor. She patiently connected some ports to a board. The only immediate acknowledgement of our presence she gave was a simple, limp wave of her hand.

"Welcome home," she said after the piece she was working on was completed. Lain was dressed in shorts and a thin tank top.

"Hey Lain," I said. Did she know what happened earlier? She looked like nothing was wrong.

"How did you get all this stuff?" Kuroko asked. Lain shrugged.

"I went to check the mail this morning and there was an envelope addressed to me," she said. She held up a computer chip. "There were four of these inside it and a note that said to sell two of them at a shop in District Six."

What? "You went to District Six to sell a couple of computer chips?" I reiterated. Lain nodded.

Kuroko took the computer chip and examined it. "Holy! This is an Oracle Processor!" she exclaimed.

"Oracle Processor?" I asked.

"Yeah, this is some of J-Corp's top level hardware. Like not for public sale top level…and you got four of them…in the mail?" Kuroko asked Lain.

"Yes. They paid seven thousand dollars for them. It wasn't illegal, was it?" she asked.

"Not really, but I don't think JC will like that four unregistered Oracle Processors are out in the public," Kuroko said.

Lain took the chip back from Kuroko. She installed it on her board and closed up the console. The machine booted up with a roar of its fan. On Lain's laptop monitor, the J Corp logo popped up. "Do you like it?" Lain asked as she logged on. "I call it Delphi."

The user interface was pretty dense. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. "That's nice," I commented. "But uh, we're going out to dinner tonight."

That perked the girl up. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"I'm thinking that Tex-Mex place in the district," I suggested.

"Oh, nice. I'll phone Saten and Uiharu," Kuroko said. She pulled her phone out and dialed up our friends. Lain got dressed while I changed into street cloths.

We met the other girls at the border of the district, where districts eight, seven, eleven, and twelve connected. It was a good walk from there to the restaurant. I had to say Lain looked absolutely adorable with her bear hat on.

It was a place called _de_ _Tía_ _Julia_. Rumor was that it was a mobile burrito shop during the construction period that was so popular, the owner was given a stand alone restaurant near the District Seven and District One. Right on the bay too. The staff had us seated in a few minutes. Prime seating too, we could look out over the bay and see the water dance to the setting sun behind us. There wasn't much in the way of a crowd yet. This place was pretty popular with the teachers and they were probably waiting for us kids to get back home.

The waitress, probably a high school student, brought us a bowl of chips and salsa. Everyone dug in.

"So what are we celebrating anyway?" Saten asked between bites.

"Kuroko got bumped up to Level Four today," I answered. Saten bit her lip.

"Oh," she said. I braced her shoulder before it could slouch over.

"Hey, when you get to Level One, we'll throw you the biggest party Academy City has ever seen," I assured her. That brought a smile to her face.

The waitress returned with our drinks. Lain and Saten were chatting and Kuroko was getting way to familiar with the chips.

"So, Uiharu...what's your ability anyway?" I asked.

Uiharu blushed. "It's nothing special and definitely not as cool as what the kids at Glashow," she muttered.

"Come on, every power is cool," I countered.

"I...uh...I can make an object I touch retain most of its original temperature," she said.

"So you never have to worry about cold soup?" I jokingly asked. Uiharu didn't get the joke by the look of her teary eyes.

"Oh shu sa her at wack," Kuroko mumbled mid-chew. Uiharu looked rather confused. Kuroko swallowed the chips and took a massive gulp of her Dr. Pepper. "At work, you should see her at work. We'd have to get new computer every week if she didn't have a fraction of her ability," she expanded. Uiharu smiled and blushed.

Our waitress returned with our fajitas. The chicken snapped and hissed in the skillets. The aroma of grilled peppers and onions filled the air. Kuroko unleashed the warm scent of fresh tortillas. Lain seemed a bit unsure as we dug in.

She quickly got into it. I had never seen one take to fajitas in such a ravenous manner. Lain must have eaten more tacos than what her plate provided.

That night after the other girls went home, and Kuroko and Lain went to bed, I was still up. I was working on some homework. It was hard to keep my eyes open. The homework could wait for after a quick little nap.

"Did you hear about Lain?" a voice whispered.

"Yeah I saw her last week at Cyberia," another voice said.

"What about Accelerator? No one has seen him in weeks."

"I heard Caiaphas has him."

"What about Railgun?"

"I think she's—"

My eyes shot open. I looked around. I was still in my room. My computer was still on. Okay, time for bed. Maybe I'd see a doctor tomorrow and check out Cyberia for clues about Lain. It sounded crazy but after the stonewall we hit over the weekend, anything was worth trying.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: You know why _A Certain Scientific Railgun_ is a good show? In what is supposed to be the fan service styled episode, not only is there character development for some of the side characters there is also a _2001: A Space Odyssey_ reference. I'm sorry, but that is freaking awesome.

Fun fact: to get a yield of ~6.1 * 10^-4 megatons of TNT with an object with a mass similar to that of a quarter, you would need to get that object up to a velocity of one one hundredth the speed of light. That's 299,792 m/s or 670,615 MPH.

On topic now by opening up a can of mind-screw. I mean you can't have Lain without someone on the verge of going crazy. What's the point otherwise? Also free cookies to who ever gets the tech reference! Leave your answer in a review.

Until next time, I know you want me to say it {but I can't let myself do that, Bluefire}


	4. Layer IV

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer IV: Which Side of the Looking-Glass

"Aaaahhhhhhh," I said as the doctor pressed down my tongue with that stupid wooden stick. She shone that light right down my throat.

"Well from all I've seen, you're a physically healthy teenage girl," Doctor Cutter said. She was a British doctor that I had seen since I got into middle school. The doc turned it off and retracted the tongue presser.

"I know doc, it's just what happened yesterday. It was so bizarre," I said. Cutter nodded.

"Your concentration might be slipping and you're picking up radio signals again."

"No, they were nothing like that. I was _seeing_ things. That never happens when I listen in on radio signals," I countered.

Cutter crossed her arms. "Listen, Mikoto: it is pretty common for high level Espers to develop a mental illnesses as they grow in power and age," she said.

That was definitely new. "What are you saying?" I asked.

"Only that I'm glad you're keeping up with your health. But your behavior is well within social norms and nothing came up on your MRI scan. I think you've just gotten stressed out about going into high school next year," Cutter suggested. Yes my four-point-o and Level Five status were truly causing me such distress over my future. Try the amnesiatic girl sleeping on my living room couch. Not that I was going to tell the good doctor about Lain.

"I'll prescribe something to help you sleep and recommend you take it easy," Cutter added. "Alright now let's get you checked out."

Great, sleep meds. That will totally help. I hopped off the examination table. We walked out of the front desk. Cutter started writing the prescription.

There were about a dozen students out in the waiting room. The younger kids were escorted by some Judgment officers while the older ones were there alone.

"So why do some Espers become so err…sociopathic?" I asked. Cutter paused mid-stroke.

"Well you'd have to talk to one of the brain surgeons they have running around District One for a more complete answer. From what I've gleaned, it has to do with the way an Esper substitutes the rules of reality, whether they mean to or not, for their own. After a while they begin to lose touch with reality," Cutter said. She finished the prescription and gave it to me.

"So should I be worried?" I asked. Cutter shook her head.

"No I think you're going to be fine. You're probably one of the most grounded kids here," she said. I took it with the most sincere smile I could muster. I gave a reassuring nodded. We parted ways.

Outside, Friday night was starting to creep in. I had to wait a nerve wrenching week to see Dr. Cutter. Luck smiled on me and nothing too weird happened in that time.

Most of the students were in uniform and heading up to the maglev train station above. I was all the way in District Two, the student services district. I headed up to the station as well.

The train silently arrived just as I made it up to the top. It was the five o'clock to District Four. If I played my cards right I could make the five thirty bus to District Seven, get changed, and go with the girls to Cyberia on time.

Kuroko was more than thrilled that I requested to go. I sat down on the train. At precisely five o'clock the train left the station. Its launch was so effortless and smooth; I was probably the first to notice we were off. I felt the shifting polarization below. That was the beauty of being an Electromaster I suppose.

The trains in the city ran perfectly timed most days thanks to the heavily automated Avri systems that monitored them. The busses also ran mostly on time thanks to a super advanced infrastructure, making the traffic lights so efficiently timed that traffic accidents were nearly wiped out. I think that an Avri ran those systems as well.

Most students enjoyed the train. I was starting to see why. When I was ten, my class went on a trip to one of the labs in District One. I got so excited that I accidentally created a magnetic burst. They shut down the rail system for months to come up with new safety procedures.

It was perfectly safe for me to be on board now and had been for years. I was still scared I'd mess something up again. Even in Academy City, an Esper's power was still capable of causing embarrassment.

Speaking of that, a couple of boys were giving me weird stares. They proceeded to whisper amongst themselves. Well it was never too early to start kicking butt.

The more I watched them I came to the realization they were elementary school kids. I had to be careful if they started something. The City Board wasn't big on older students fighting with elementary kids.

Two of the boys approached me. "You're...you're Mikoto Misaka," the boy sputter with a fairly noticeable German accent. He'd probably lose it all together pretty soon. Most kids did. Academy City was less a melting pot and more of a reeducation center in away. It wasn't some sinister plot, just the result of having an international staff that had to use English in order to communicate that was sent off to an island right off the coast of a global cultural powerhouse.

The boys were nervously sweating. "Yeah, I am," I said. One of the boys elbowed the other.

The boy raised his clasped hands. "Um I'm an uh…I'm an Electromaster too. See," he said.

He opened his hand to reveal a dancing metal butterfly lazily flapping its wings. I could feel the minor magnetic shifts happening inside his hands. His hands were twitching, eyes widened.

His concentration faltered after a few seconds and the metal butterfly fell into his hands. He hung his head. "But I'm not very powerful. Not like you," he muttered. I frowned.

"Well I think it's quite impressive," I sincerely assured him. I glanced up to see Lain standing behind the boys. Her head was curiously cocked to the side. Not this crap again! There were a lot of people.

"Ms. Misaka?" the boy asked. Lain straightened up her head.

"It's nothing kid, just tired. You keep working on that okay?" I answered. Lain disappeared just as the train stopped. Come on Mikoto, you're losing it. Deep breath…

…and release. Much better. I made it down to the street and grabbed the bus without incident. I arrived at the apartment complex right on time. The down stairs was pretty busy as usual. The game room was packed with students. They were having a game tournament of some kind. It was the new _Super Smash Bros._, with Gekota as a playable character!

I anxiously looked at the elevator banks then back to the game room. Damn it all! I ran up to the elevator the moment its doors parted open and slipped inside, manically pushing the close button after I punched my floor. My foot started to impatiently and uncontrollably tap.

The car stopped on my floor. I calmly stepped out into the hallway. I heard noises erupting from inside my apartment. Oh boy. I opened the door.

Indeed Kuroko was wearing nothing but racy underwear, holding up a dress of questionable class, and chasing Lain across the living room. Occasionally she'd teleport in front of Lain. "Come on Lain, I just need to see how much skin this one shows," she shouted. I lived in a city-school filled with kids who could levitate an elephant with a thought or read my mind with a passing glance. Yet this had to be one the strangest moments of my life.

My brow twitched. I place a hand on my temple. Well, hopefully that tournament was still taking entries. Kuroko heard the door slam behind me and looked over. A massive smile ripped open across her face. She teleported in front of me.

"Oh Sissy, you're back! Are you alright? You should have let me take you to the hospital; it is part of my job as an officer of Judgment," she quickly told me.

I sighed. "I'm fine, Kuroko," I answered. I brushed past her. "And is it also part of your job at Judgment to chase your roommate around in an attempt to make her wear something against her will?"

"Sorry Lain," Kuroko said. She shook her head.

"Alright, work on your mediocre plans to seduce me later and get dressed so we can meet up with Uiharu and Saten," I said as opened my door. I entered my room and slipped into a skirt and black blouse, not to different from what Lain usually wore.

Kuroko and Lain were ready to go. Of course Kuroko wore that skimpy dress she tried to make Lain wear. She was cocking her hips with a leg popped out like model. Lain was dressed in a similar fashion to myself. She wore her adorable bear hat.

My pink haired friend had to drag me past the game room. She had to get Lain to push me past the door. I tried not to tear up as I witness my favorite green frog mascot pummel a red hatted plumber with a big mallet.

Outside I took another deep breath before we walked down to Cyberia. It was starting to fill up. A few groups of kids were hanging outside the building. Most of them were plugged into their cell phones, tapping their way into the digital world all around us.

I heard the pulse of music beat from inside the club calling me. We walked down the stairs and entered a massive chamber. The atmosphere swallowed us.

Plenty of students were dancing out on the erratically lit floor. Some were sitting in dark booths squeezed along the sides of the building. Much like their classmates outside, most of the kids were buried into the Wired. A thick haze was being generated by several fog machines up in the ceiling. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

Saten waved us over to the corner booth she had reserved. We walked over to her. I looked around. "Where's Uiharu?" I asked over the pounding music. Saten pointed to the dance floor.

Uiharu was wearing a tank top and long skirt. She was performing the most graceless, out of time, arm flailing dance I had ever seen. Yet she was smiling and just not giving a crap about it. She saw the three of us had arrived and worked her way out over to us.

"What's got you looking so cheery," Kuroko greeted.

"Didn't you hear? Our branch got selected by Root to be a beta tester for the Protocol Eight update!" Uiharu enthusiastically stated.

"What?" I asked.

"The Wired is getting its first major upgrade in like seven years! Good-bye Protocol Seven, hello sweet new system management," Uiharu elaborated.

Really? I vaguely remember when Protocol Seven went up. It was an apparently a huge disaster. The Wired was down for weeks, no one could call outside the city, and the grid refused to operate. I wouldn't really know. I wasn't allowed near a computer until I was nine.

Saten hit the menu button for us once Uiharu was seated next to her. I sat between Lain and Kuroko. Virtual menus appeared inside the table.

Lain scrolled through the menu several times. She frowned.

"What's wrong?" Uiharu asked.

"There aren't any fajitas on the menu," she muttered.

The other girls started to joke with Lain about the comment. I was distracted by the feeling of unwanted attention falling upon me. I nonchalantly gazed around the room, straining to see in the strange shifting lighting of the dance floor. Nothing caught my eye.

I returned to my menu and selected something. Hopefully it wasn't expensive. Once the order was in we went over to the floor to burn some time before the food came. The music picked up, but I paid it little attention. I was looking for something, something that connected Lain to this place.

Maybe I was following some insane fever dream, but something about those words I head that night nagged at me to follow up. For one, it sounded too coherent; like I was listening in on a conversation. Two, Cyberia had a growing number of student patrons. Odds were that one of them knew Lain.

Again I felt someone stare at me. I spotted a girl with messy, dark hair and deep, blood shot, black eyes weighted down by heavy dark bags standing along the edge of the floor. Her outfit was a ruffled mess. She kept her hands nervously clutched together. She disappeared after the briefest eye contact.

The girl appeared again a few minutes later. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Saten approach the girl. Saten drew her attention, giving me a chance to approach.

"You've been watching my friend since she arrived. Do you have a problem with her or something?" Saten asked the girl. The girl turned back to me.

"Hey, Saten! Thanks but I've got this," I said. Saten gave the girl a mean stare but went back to our table in a huff.

I turned to the girl. "Listen, I already have one annoying girl pining over me. So do me a favor just let your crush go now before you get a dose of major disappointment," I said. Please have Kuroko not hear that. The girl continued to stare at me with blank eyes.

"Well are you going to say something?" I asked.

The girl looked around the thunderous chamber. "No, no, no, no! Not here! Not here! Too many ears! Too many ears!" she hysterically mumbled. I think I just tripped into crazy. She grabbed my hand and led me to an isolated alley at the side of the club. She then shoved me against a wall.

Three…

Two…

"You came here with the girl! The girl with a single long bang!" the girl said. She started to quiver.

"Lain?" I asked.

"Lain…Lain…Lain, yes! Yes! That was her name! Lain," the girl distantly mused.

I grabbed the girl's hands. "Who are you?" I asked. The girl's head cocked side to side. She blinked multiple times.

"Name? Name…name…name? Yes, yes! Ha, ha, ha! I'm Alice Mizuki, an American eighth grader at St. Germaine's All Girls Middle School!" she said, adding extra emphasis on the certain, random syllables. Alice placed a hand on her chest. Zany strands of black hair fell across her rather gaunt looking face. Her foggy brown eyes occasionally shifted left to right, and they never made contact with my eyes. They instead would focus just off to the left of me.

I felt my annoyance starting to rise again. "Okay Alice, what do you know about Lain?" I calmly tried to continue before a blood vessel burst.

"Know? Know? I don't know...I don't _remember_ much. Not like them. They've _completely_ forgotten," Alice said.

"What do you remember? Who is Lain?" I gently continued.

"Lain was...Lain was," Alice started to repeat. The light in her eyes started to fade. "We had home room, friends, all normal, came here one night. Then...then _she_ took her...from us. Did something to our heads. Made us forget...her. But I wouldn't! They all think she's imaginary now! But she's the real Lain! The real Lain" Alice blurted out.

"Who took Lain?"

"A woman...in white, who never smiles," Alice cryptically answered. Her head started to aimlessly roll around.

"What do you remember just after the woman did her operation?"

I could feel her lucidity slip. A flashlight shone on us. I looked over to see Officer Kimball from earlier. Alice let go of me. She started to shake.

"Alice? It's Persephone, what are you doing here? You know you're not allowed to leave the facility," The officer greeted. "Dr. Kiyama was so worried about you."

"No, no," Alice mumbled. She placed her right pointer and middle fingers on my temple. Shock time crazy chick!

My mind's eye blurred. Images appeared, sounds echoed around. I was in some sort of chamber, lying on a bed or a table. A woman dressed in white with golden locks was standing over me. I couldn't make out her face. There was a loud hiss. The room grew hot. Someone shouted.

Everything went black.

I shot up out of some sheets. My sheets! I was in my room, surrounded by my friends. They were all extremely worried.

"Uiharu," I said before anyone else could speak. "I need you to look up everything you can find on Alice Mizuki. Okay, now you can express you concern." I leaned back down to listen to them tell me how much they care and how I shouldn't do that again and how Anti-Skill won't always be there to save me.

I noted their sentiments, but continued to focus on the next task: finding the woman in white. She was the next link, the most important one yet. Hopefully Alice would remember more next time I saw her.

My friends left me to sleep. Save only Lain.

"That girl you went with. I know her, from somewhere," she whispered. I nodded.

"And she knows you too," I answered. "You'll meet her soon. I promise."

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: Among the annals of under-appreciated characters in fiction, there is a whole wing dedicated to Alice Mizuki. Just watch _Serial Experiments Lain _again, without her there's no show.

I liked this chapter. It took a while to get it together. I was especially unsure on how to handle Alice. This interpretation originated with a joke theory I had with a friend once.

Things are starting to move now. Lain's past is starting to come into focus ever so slightly.

Until next time, ever notice that it's almost 2015 {and yet it still feels about the same as 2005}


	5. Layer V

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer V: Blurring the Lines

Sweat poured down my brow. My heart beat at one hundred kilometers an hour. I heaved for air. Each breath seemed to inhale another layer of dust and smoke to my lungs. It wasn't enough to stop me.

The battle had been relentless. Our goal was just in sight. All that was in our way now was this creature of steel. It turned out to be quite the adversary. But just when I thought we had the mechanized monster on the ropes, Saten decided to make an insane charge. Her attack connected and our foe was nearing the end.

Saten unfortunately left herself wide open. Kuroko was wounded in the far corner of the chamber and Lain was mending her wounds. That left me the only one who could do something! If I failed, Saten was dead and so were Kuroko and Lain.

I curled my fist. Tucked in my palm was the instrument of our salvation. Do or die time. I let go. Time slowed down as I watched it go.

Everything stopped. "Sixteen! That's a hit!" Uiharu eagerly shouted from behind her shield. I stared at the die. A sigh went around the table, save for Saten who was smiling like she just outfoxed Paullous and Varro.

"I told you it would be fine," Saten said. She placed her hands behind her head. A self-satisfied smirk was strewn across her face.

Kuroko frowned. "That barely made it, Saten and We're not out of this yet," she warned. "Sissy still has to roll for damage."

She was right. I picked up four 6 sided dice. I stated mixing them in my hand. This wasn't how I'd expected to spend my day. Today I was supposed to meet with Alice Mizuki.

Uiharu had done a good job finding out about Mizuki. She was currently on medical leave from St. Germaine's at a mental hospital in District One. Alice was the oldest daughter of a J Corp executive and a talented Level Three contact-mempath with good grades. Memory-telepathy or mempath was a fairly common ability that allowed a user to share their memories and view others. _And_ like a lot of upper level students within the telepathic-esque family of Esper powers, Alice had developed schizophrenia.

So why was she at Cyberia and not back at the hospital? Why was the same officer looking for her at Cyberia and was at St. Germaine's? I needed to figure out how Alice fit with Lain.

To that end, I needed to find out who Kiyama was and what she knew about Alice. A basic search on the Wired pointed to a pair of twins in District Six with aquakinesis and pyrokinesis respectively. That one was pretty easy to cross out. The other hit directed me to a doctor working at a hospital in District One.

Doctor Kiyama was attached to several completed classified projects and a couple of active classified projects. The only picture Uiharu could come up with was an Identity Card Photo from about seven years ago. Kiyama was a young woman back then with light brown hair and a near permeant looking scowl.

My plan to visit them at the hospital this weekend was undone by Hurricane Calvin. Tree Diagram predicted the storm a week in advance and the hospital had to reschedule my visit for the following Monday after the storm. Two weeks of waiting, writing question, and digging up information put on hold. So now I was holed up in the Judgment office where Kuroko and Uiharu worked.

Most of the mainland cities and town had evacuated to Huston earlier in the week. Academy City didn't need to. The original purpose of the research facility that was built before Academy City was to develop hurricane proof buildings and systems for harnessing energy from them. The result was a fortress like city capable of enduring the worst storms the sea could throw at it.

Sure the students were confined to their quarters during the storms, and Saten and I only got to stay at the Judgment office because we volunteered as emergency caregivers. Uiharu falsified an ID and the neccisary paperwork for Lain so she could stay with us too.

Alas being a volunteer didn't mean much in the clinical procedures of Academy City. So we dusted off Uiharu's old rule books and went off questing in the realms beyond this one to pass the time.

Saten was a talent rogue, capable of picking any lock.

Kuroko was a noble paladin, fighting for righteousness.

Lain was a loyal cleric, keep us up in our darkest hour.

And I was a skilled ranger, protecting from a distance.

Alright time to see what the fates have in store. I released my dice.

A siren sounded from across the room. Uiharu and Kuroko jumped up. They rushed over to the computer console.

"What's happening?" Saten asked. She stood up and walked over to the other two. I looked out the window. Calvin was raging outside.

Lain and I went to the window. I heard the rumble of the thunder and the pounding rain.

"An elementary bus crashed a couple of blocks up," Uiharu said.

"Why was a bus out and not in lockdown?" Kuroko asked. She folded her arms across her chest. Uiharu quickly typed in a query.

"Bus 2163 missed the lockdown deadline by two minutes and was ordered by Anti-Skill to find cover. Something must have happened and they tried to move but got beat up by the storm," she theorized. "Something must have happened to their radio because the only thing that it's emitting is an automated distress call."

I turned my head over to the other girls. "What's Anti-Skill's ETA?" I asked. Uiharu brought up a map that had Anti-Skill's deployment on it and a camera feed of the crash area. Saten's eyes widened.

"We can make it there faster than any of them," she said. Saten was right, it would take Anti-Skill was at least fifteen minutes away in optimal conditions. We could get there in three minutes easy. "We have to do something!"

"Yes but all we have is the Redoubt Crawler and we're woefully ill-equipped to carry out a rescue operation," Uiharu glumly added. I looked at the wreckage. The bus had a massive gash ripped in its side and was flipped over in the middle of the street.

"But we have extra steel and welding helmets right?" Saten asked.

Uiharu slightly nodded her head. "Yeah, but—"

"Come on, I'll explain on the way!" Saten shouted. We followed her out to the umbilical corridor that connected the office to our Redoubt parked outside.

The Redoubt Crawlers were specially designed vehicles for traversing harsh weather, like the currently raging hurricane. It was basically a small grey tank, only built more aerodynamically but lacking any heavy armaments. Evidently there used to be a turret for applying water to fires in post-storm fires. Then the _Grand Theft Auto_ series became popular in the city and the Safety Board said no more tank-like vehicles for the students specifically selected to assist in law enforcement.

We reached the side door into the crawler. Uiharu and Kuroko opened it up. They quickly went to the front of the vehicle. Lain and I took a couple of the side chairs. Saten went to a footlocker and started rummaging around in it.

Uiharu pulled up a remote controller. "Wait; is that a three-sixty controller?" I asked. The girl nodded. This place was weird.

Saten took something out of the box then took her seat. She tossed her prize at me. It was a black welding helmet.

My eyebrow cocked up. "Okay, once we get there, Kuroko is going to teleport into the bus and give aid to anyone hurt inside and keep the kids back while Misaka patches the side with the spare steel with the lightning. Then we pull it up right and help it on its way if needed," Saten explained. She formed a gun with her middle and index fingers

"Hold on! That's Anti-Skill Property, we can't use it! What if they need it for an emergency?" Uiharu shouted.

"This is an emergency," I countered. "Those kids are in danger and we are the closed ones who can do something."

Kuroko placed a hand on Uiharu. "They'll understand," she said. Uiharu sighed and kept driving.

I wasn't sure about Saten's plan to help the kids. The part about Kuroko teleporting into the bus to aid was perfect. But me welding the shut with my electricity?

Theoretically it was possible. My electricity could easily be as powerful an industrial plasma torch in concentrated doses. Only I never tried something so precise and to try it out in the middle of a storm didn't seem ideal. Especially if the wind picked up, then I'd have to focus on keeping my body magnetically attached to the bus as well.

We came to a stop near the sight. I looked out the front. The bus was being pelted with rain. Kuroko handed me a wireless earpiece communicator.

I put it on. "Testing. One, two. One, two," Uiharu said.

"I hear you," I replied.

"Good on my end," Kuroko announced. I picked out a heavy rain coat as did Kuroko. She grabbed a first aid bag.

The pink haired girl then closed her eyes. She vanished and appeared on top of the turned over bus then vanished again. I grabbed the mask Saten handed me. Lain put on a coat too.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Lain zipped up the jacket.

"I'm going to help," she quietly declared. Saten started collecting the fifty centimeter by fifty centimeter thin steel panels.

"It's okay Lain, stay here," I said.

Lain clenched her fist. I felt myself go dizzy, concentration shot. The cabin lights flickered for a second. Saten dropped the panels in her arms and braced me up. Uiharu gasped. The girl looked…angered? No, sad.

Her breaths were labored. Strands of hair rose off of her head. Her eyes went to her feet. "I…I just want to do something other than sit around like always. Please, let me help," she whimpered.

My head stopped spinning. "Okay, help Saten collect steel and bring them to me," I said. She nodded and got to work. I placed the mask on top of my head, pulled up my hood, grabbed a panel, and went to the door. Uiharu punched a button, opening the door.

I stepped out into the deluge of the storm. The rain pounded the ground, creating a shifting rhythm all around. My body already felt soaked. I quickly made my way to the bus. A simple use of magnetism lifted me up top. I surveyed the gash in the side of the bus. It ran about five meters long and was fairly wide. The panel barely made it over it.

"Hey Kuroko, how is it in there?" I asked over the comm.

"Pretty bad Sissy. There is a ton of water down here and a lot of blood too," she disparagingly answered.

"Alright, tell everyone to move to the side. I'm going to start work," I said. If I even can.

I pulled the mask down. I could barely see. It sent a chill of claustrophobia down my back. My hand formed a gun. First off I created a magnetic field to contain any offshoots. Next I formed the necessary charges.

Electricity began to pop and crackle inside the container. I felt a wave of heat fall over me as the concentrated electricity began to weld the panel onto the bus. It was a slow process but I finished in about a minute.

Saten and Lain pulled up on top of the bus and started lining up the panels. I quickly began working on getting the panels attached.

I heard a loud thud behind me. Lain gasped. I pushed up my mask and turned around. Saten was no longer there. Lain held her hands to her mouth. I went over and saw a trail of blood in the layer of water on the ground that led to Saten, who was floating down the street.

She was already fifteen meters away and gaining distance fast. I had to think of something! Time started to slow down. I felt something stir in my mind. Lain had pulled out her phone. Her thumbs were hacking away.

My vison started to blur. Not now, not here. Voices started to filter through. It was all petty conversations whispering nothing in my mind. I saw Lain standing over Saten. Lain was also standing on a traffic light above the street, and on the sidewalk across from that Lain. There were dozens of Lains all around. She was also still with me on top of the bus. I think.

The Lain clones were standing around, intently studying every square centimeter of the street

Everything then went normal. Lain had put away her phone. I had an idea to save Saten! I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my socks. Lain stoically watched, not even raising a hand in protest.

"Misaka, what are you doing?" Uiharu asked in panic.

It felt horribly cold without my feet coverings. I magnetically pulled myself over to the top of a nearby stoplight. Keeping attached with my feet, I took a deep breath and visualized my plan.

"Saving Saten," I replied.

"Are you insane?" Uiharu shouted. I wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question.

I launched myself forward, catching the next stoplight with my feet. Technically I could have left my shoes on. But those extra few centimeters might have thrown off my calculations if my concentration slipped. Especially after I retrieved Saten.

I jumped to the next traffic light. The distance between Saten and I was starting to close as I picked up pace with my leaps. My heartbeat slowed down

Saten was almost right below me. The water was picking up speed. I took a deep breath and dropped down. It was a bracing hitting the water.

I grabbed my friend. She was bleeding pretty badly from a nasty head wound. Her lips mumbled something incoherent.

"Hold on, Saten," I said. I reached out with my power. We began to lift ever so slowly off the street. I landed on top of the traffic light. Thunder rumbled above us. Saten kept talking to herself. I leaned in and jumped to the next one.

My footing didn't click. We started to fall. I couldn't make the necessary calculations! I looked down at the street below. Crap, crap, crap!

Someone grabbed hold of my free arm. For a split second I felt my brain complete the needed recalculations. We were lifted back on the light. I looked about only to find there was no one around. Kuroko! No matter the crap I gave her about her crush on me, she always came through when I needed her. I looked up to find nobody there.

It took another two leaps but we made it back to find Anti-Skill hard at work fixing up the bus. An EMT took Saten from once we were back on the ground. I was then escorted to an Anti-Skill truck without a word. They placed me in the back with Uiharu, Kuroko, and Lain.

We were driven back to the office where an Officer was waiting for us. It was Kimball, again. She didn't look pleased. Her dark hair was a frazzled mess barely held together in a loose bun. We quickly took a seat on the couch. Kimball slammed her hand down on Kuroko's desk, staring at us with an irritated rage.

"I'm going to make this brief, girls. I've been working in this city for the past nine years, with six hurricanes between them. But this is the first time I've ever seen Judgment Officers so utterly disregard their parameters," she growled. She directed her gaze over to me and Lain. "And don't BS me with the not-in-Judgment routine; you two are part of this regardless."

The four of us couldn't help but squirm in our seats. Kimball sighed. "However, I get why you acted. You were closer and able to render assistance, something no one in this line of business could resist. So there won't be any further push from our end. But I hope you learned something about your friend's injury," she concluded. She put on her rain coat and walked out, staring at Lain for a second longer as she passed. Lain just sat there stiff as a board, eyes glassed over as they gazed into nothing.

"I don't like her," Kuroko huffed once she was safely gone. It was starting to get unnerving the way she showed up, like she was always watching us. That look she gave Lain led me to believe she too knew something about the girl. I doubt she'd be kind enough to oblige our curiosity and as an Anti-Skill officer she could make our lives hell. So I'd skip her in the questioning queue.

"Yeah, she seems to show up all over the place. Anyway, thanks for saving me out there," I added.

Kuroko's eyebrow cocked up. "I didn't save you. Unless you plan on some token of affection as a reward," she said. She leaned in close to me, her lips puckered.

"You...but...I," I stammered. Hand, I felt a hand grab me and help me up.

"Are you feeling okay, Misaka? Do you need your medication?" Uiharu asked. I involuntary twitched. Doctor Cutter's sleep medication had been working wonders. No weird dreams or random mental breakdowns in the middle of the street since I started. But I was no junkie. Over-relying on pills was going to dull my senses.

"I'm...fine," I said. Who saved me then? There was no one else around who could have helped me. A wave of exhaustion hit me like a bulldozer to a condemned building. I lacked the energy to so much as lift an arm.

Lain started to twitch. Blood oozed out of her nose. She collapsed into my shoulder. Kuroko jumped up and grabbed some tissue paper. Uiharu went over to the first aid kit.

We quickly treated Lain, placing her head in my lap. Within a few minutes we stopped the bleeding. Her eyes popped open and she sprang up with a massive heave of air.

The exhaustion that crippled me just moments ago vanished. Uiharu started wiping the dried blood off her face. She put a hand to Lain's forehead.

"You seem fine. No fever," she said. Lain swung her feet off the couch.

"I'm sorry," Lain muttered. "I didn't mean to cause trouble for you."

"What happened?" I asked.

Lain rubbed her eyes. "Did I…I help?" she whispered. "I think I..."

She collapsed again. For the next couple of days we waited out the storm. Lain drifted in and out of consciousness until the all clear was given. She barely said a word whenever she was awake. Instead she stared at me or out the window with her vacant stare.

We got on the first bus we could find to visit Saten at the hospital. It was a pretty busy. Not with injuries due to the storm, just the usual assortment of ailments that besieged a city composed mostly of children.

A doctor led us through the super sterilized hallways to Saten's room. Our friend was longingly staring out the window. She turned to us and confusedly cocked her head.

"Do I…know you?" Saten asked. Uiharu began to tear up, ran up to Saten's side, and bawled into the sheets. Kuroko and I couldn't help but roll our eyes. Lain looked around in confusion.

Saten ruffled Uiharu's hair. "Kidding, geez," she said. Uiharu looked up, sniffling.

"You are so cruel, Saten," she spat.

We all laughed, save Lain who was still quiet. "So what did they do?" Kuroko asked. Saten lifted up her long hair and revealed several stitches.

"Not much. I'm just glad they didn't have to run a Testament regiment on me," she said with a shudder.

"I don't know, sometimes I think your brain could use a little adjustment," Uiharu grumbled. In the wild myths associated with the city found on the Wired Testament machines were often the villain's ultimate weapon or _dei ex machina_ for fixing plot points in the myths about the city. Testament was in reality a piece of medical hardware used for reconstructing a person's mind after serious head trauma.

That didn't mean that they were totally benign. Behavior modification was an application Testaments could perform. "Screwing around with someone's head like that isn't something to joke about. You could really damage someone's personality with that kind of power," I commented. Surgical accidents were one thing, but I couldn't imagine someone so twisted they would actively manipulate someone else's mind like that.

Uiharu sighed and nodded. "I know," she turned to Saten, "but you could work on being less reckless."

Saten placed a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, what did I do to get a friend like you?" she mused.

"Come on will you at least try?" Uiharu asked. Saten nodded with a sincere smile. A slight shimmer could be seen in her eyes.

"No promises," she teased. Saten looked over to Lain. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Lain looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention and you fell and—"

"Hey it turned out alright, didn't it? Don't worry about it Lain," Saten broke her off. She turned to me with a resigned smile. "Life happen and you can't control the outcome."

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: This chapter took a lot more time to put down than I would have liked. I wouldn't call it writer's block, more of a fork in the road. I wanted to introduce somethings but spent most of the time trying to figure out how and where. Well thankfully there is editing.

The final product isn't exactly what I wanted for this chapter. But when has a plan ever survived first contact? I play _XCOM_, I know the drill. Stupid berserkers. Anyway the chapter turned out well I think.

All of that and I didn't even advance the plot much. Well I did just hammer in four chapters worth of plot, so why not take a break. Why not relax a bit before we kick in to the final leg? Leave a review to tell me how relaxed you are.

Until next time, ever notice that _XCOM: Enemy Unknown_ and _Mass Effect 3_ have a similar ending {except one didn't kill the internet}_  
><em>


	6. Layer VI

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer VI: Student Health Hazards

One in twenty.

One in twenty.

One in twenty.

I don't remember where I first heard that fraction or who said it. But I do remember repeating those words over and over during my flight to Huston from Tokyo.

Only five percent.

Only five percent.

Only five percent.

That was my mantra on the bus ride to Galveston. To my childish mind those odds were foolproof. Who could lose?

I don't think I was ever happier than the day I arrived at Academy City. My dream of becoming the greatest Esper of all time clutched tightly in my heart. It was a childish dream perhaps, but one I readily bought into.

But like all such dreams, it was fleeting.

My whole world shattered into a thousand tiny fragments after my first aptitude test. I turned out to be among _that_ five percent. _That_ one in twenty. _That_ I, Rukio Saten, was a lowly Level Zero. No manifested powers. And I remained a Level Zero since that day and probably still will be on the day I leave.

It was a strange thing. They always said you had the potential to be a manifested Esper, carefully choosing their words as not to guarantee you'd actually develop an ability. The gracious city board still let Level Zeros stay because there was still a chance we'd develop an ability. After all we still had the quote-unquote genetic markers of an Esper. So I suspected that they wanted us in their records to see if Esper powers were genetically inheritable.

When I first attended class, it wasn't that big of a deal. Just about everyone was a Level One so it was difficult for us to tell who really had powers and who didn't. But once I got to elementary school everyone else seemed to leave me in the dust.

Actually more like left in rocket exhaust. They were soaring worlds away and I was still stuck here on the ground. Usually they came back to Earth to walk the planet as demigods bent on impressing us mere mortals.

I wasn't jealous of those with developed abilities. Well a little, but it wasn't some driving passion or prejudice. I mean I wouldn't be friends with Uiharu if it was. There were still some that made me so mad! There arrogance annoyed me to inhuman levels! The Level Fours and _especially_ the Fives. They flaunted their powers over the rest of us not as annoying-but-tolerable, self-centered brats; rather they acted as the cruelest bullies. Once a petty spat between a couple of them leveled an office building in District One.

It was fortunate I suppose that there were only seven Level Fives in the city. I would have been content to have finished up my schooling without ever meeting one.

Then Uiharu stepped in. Through her I met Mikoto Misaka. I wasn't sure how we'd get along at first. I was prepared to hate her.

Life just had to throw me for a loop. Misaka turned out to be pretty cool and laid back. I mean she was a total dork from time to time, but in an adorable fashion. She was awesome.

That's why it made me angry that I screwed up so badly at the bus. She could have gotten hurt trying to save me! That wasn't fair. And I swear that something happened.

I wasn't exactly one hundred percent there in the head to be fair. It felt like Misaka slipped and that we were falling to our doom. Then I felt something, like time slowing down around us. I swear I saw Lain, her weird haircut and vacant expression and all _grab_ Misaka's hand and pulled us up.

Lain couldn't have done anything though. It was strange but I was afraid to ask her about it, even when it was just the two of us. We were at the mall, enjoying lunch in the food court. Misaka and Shirai were seeing that Alice girl that Misaka met at Cyberia a few weeks ago, while Uiharu was on duty with Judgment.

Thus the two of us were left alone to hang out on another slow Saturday. I slowly sipped my Dr. Pepper. Lain lazily played with the remains of her Panda Express. The main rush was starting to disperse.

Hanging out with Lain alone was a surprisingly difficult task. It was a strange lesson to learn. To say Lain was easy to forget was an understatement. She spent most of her time just staring at a particular object that caught her eye, allowing me to wander the store. She would lock eyes with a stuffed bear or other such animal and continue to bore into to its head until I pried her away, usually after I remembered her whilst rummaging through the next store.

And then there was the electronics shop. I thought I'd have to get the manager to help me drag her out of there. She had to touch everything in the place. She'd pick up a piece and list off the specs to herself. You'd think she was whispering to her lover in some cheesy pulp romance story the way she spoke about the pieces of silicon she held in her hands.

It felt like the girl wasn't even human sometimes.

After that near fiasco we got lunch. I was about to get up. We were going to the arcade to wait for Misaka and Sharai to get back.

I looked around for a gap to make a break for it. Amongst the crowd of students were several Anti-Skill officers. That was to be expected to keep some order in the place, but these officers were decked out in full gear. Body armor, helmets, and assorted weaponry all to make sure some high school kids didn't vandalize a back alley wall? No something was wrong.

I grabbed Lain's hand and prepared to make a dash out of there. The officers rushed forward, breaking out of the crowd for the side entrance to the outside. A girl screamed. Panic rushed over the crowd. Most ran out of court back into the mall.

My eyes widened as I felt a change in the air. It was electrical. I looked over to see the officers twitching under a layer of blue electricity. I flipped the table and yanked Lain down behind it just before the Anti-Skill collapsed to the ground.

Lain was rocking back and forth. "Misaka…Misaka…Misaka," she whispered to herself. I watch someone clad all in black step over the collapsed Anti-Skill officers. The clomping of their heavy boots echoed all around us.

I grabbed Lain's shoulder. "Misaka isn't here, we have to go now!" I hissed. Lain launched her right hand to my face, fiercely gripping my cheeks.

"Have to…have to stop," Lain whispered. Stop who? How? A high level Electromaster just downed a ton of Anti-Skill officers without breaking a sweat. I was useless, Lain was useless. What the hell could we possibly do?

Lain's thumb started to press in harder right under my eye. The world slowed down. I could hear my every heartbeat. I saw something in Lain's eyes. Her brown irises started to glow before they momentarily rolled back into her head.

She let go of me and thing seemed to return to normal. "Lain, Lain!" I quietly pleaded with her, giving her shoulder a gentle shake. Lain didn't respond. The clomping of the intruder's boots stopped. Screw it, hopefully I could stay alive long enough to draw them away from Lain.

I stepped out of our makeshift cover. The intruder and I were about ten meters apart from each other. They were slightly taller than me and had a bigger build. They were covered in a black and grey outfit, centered around a black catsuit with a grey trim and a belt around their waist. A black half skirt covered the back and sides of their legs, reaching midway down their calves. They also had on a thick cape on top off all of that along with a drawn up hood.

A flat, dark gray mask perfectly enclosed their face. It had a single black visor where their eyes should have been. Outside of some sort of off-orange scaring around where their lips probably were there were no other distinguishing features on it.

Hair all over my body started to stand up, like I had just been zapped by static. "Hey Darth stupid!" I shouted. Among the crap ideas I've had, this was quickly becoming the worst.

The figure crossed their arms in contempt. Their head cocked slightly to the right. "If it isn't the pathetic Ruiko Saten, I never thought I'd have the displeasure of meeting you," they said through a heavy electronic voice filter. Even so, they sounded like a girl. "Tell me where the girl is and I'll make your death more painless than you deserve."

Talk about hostile. Did I know her? How did she know me? Screw it, I'd figure that stuff out later. I picked up a plastic pepper shaker off of a nearby table. A paltry defense at best, but work with what you got.

"I know a lot of girls. You're going to need to be a little more specific," I jeered. Was this the time to be snarky? Definitely no, but it was that or wetting myself about six times by now.

The oddly dressed girl laughed. "The one you _must_ be accompanying. And don't lie, I know she's here. I can _feel_ her," she growled through the filter. She took another step towards me.

Lain? She wanted Lain? What the hell was going on? Oh, and I wasted my stupid Star Wars reference too early. Suck was written all over the rest of the day, if I survived to see the rest of said day. Come on witty comeback. Come on witty comeback. Don't lose your cool.

Adrenaline flooded my body. My body went numb. I thought it was the hormones mixing with what I assumed was the strange electricity permeating off the girl in black. No it was like the world was starting to bend around me. A strange pain ripped open in my brain.

The pepper shaker raced out of my hands aimed right at the girl's face. She dodged it with only a few centimeters to spare. Did…did I do that? I touched the table where I had gotten the shaker.

I felt like I was lifting off the ground as the table launched forward at the intruder. She performed a perfectly executed back flip over the oncoming projectile.

Her feet slammed on to the ground. "Well now, I guess you're not as pathetic as I thought," she said. "But I doubt you simply manifested a power over the past month, which means the girl must be closer than I thought."

The girl reached out her hand and lifted all the tables off the ground and moved them over. My heart skipped a beat or two. Lain was gone! Oh good, now all that was on my list was staying alive. But that's the easy part right?

"Where. Is. She, _Zero_?" She spat the last word as if it were nothing but dirt from the back of her boot. I heard that kind of arrogant condescension too many times in my life. No more of that crap. I was going to _beat_ respect out of this one. Now I had some real power to fight back against the likes of her!

"You'll have to catch me first!" I taunted. I turned and bolted.

Gotta run, gotta run, gotta run!

Crap, I should have worked harder in gym. My heart was about to explode! I stopped to breathe, the sound of my pursuer approaching echoed down the hall. The mall had been fortunately emptied. The only sign of occupation was some trash littered over the floor.

But where the hell was Anti-Skill? Shouldn't they be taking down this maniac? This scenario was literally generically defined in their job description. Ah screw it.

I looked up to see the large skylight built into the roof. An idea popped into my head. I wasn't sure the extent of my powers, but if it worked it was going to be fun.

I picked up as many bottles of soap from a nearby store that I could carry. I took the perfect position under the skylight.

The attacking girl came around the corner. She held a silver cylinder in her hands and she held it out horizontally in front of her. Her thumb twitched. The cylinder turned into a pole about the length of a traditional long sword, extending out to the right of the girl.

Bolts of electricity began to swarm around the area that would have been the blade on an actual sword. The electricity quickened and quickened. I saw the pole turn into…plasma? Yeah, that was a blue plasma sword.

Now I was really regretting the earlier Star Wars insult. _C'est la vie_, I guess.

The girl started to march forward, dragging the plasma blade along the ground. The tile melted into bubbling goo as the plasma burning into the floor.

I launched a bottle at her. I had to try something even if it was probably futile.

The girl lazily deflected the soap with a single swipe of her blade and kept heading for me. The headline "Girl stabs other girl to death using phallic imagery" flashed in my head. Freud would have been proud I suspected.

I'd never be able to execute my original plan. Not with reflexes like hers. Then it hit me. Her helmet must have limited her vision, so she used an electrical field like a shark to compensate. That accounted for the weird static at the food court and for how easily she dodged my attacks.

My only option was to overload that sense. I launched all the bottles I had at the girl.

The last bottle slipped my hand and I built up some speed then began a slide tackle. The girl didn't notice me slide right by her. I gave her boot a light poke and she went flying.

I followed her up using a similar technique. My opponent was already back on her feet.

Time to finish this. I was going to send this one flying across the city and hopefully she'd be a red smear on a wall at the end of her trip. It was within the realm of possibilities, because now reality was my plaything.

My legs flew off the ground. My body went numb. I looked down in time to see a steel girder had slammed into me. I crashed into what I believed was an air conditioning unit. Crap that hurt like hell.

The girder fell to the side. My head slouched forward. My vision blurred. I swear I heard a helicopter come in somewhere off to the side. It left the area but I still heard it off to the side. The sweet call off unconsciousness beckoned, but my will to stay alive kept me awake. I kept my head down, praying that they'd think I really was unconsciousness.

Warm blood started to roll out of my nose.

"You know I was hoping against hope that you were going to be smart and not stir up the pot. But unsurprisingly, my dear Pandora, you did. Now I have to clean up your mess," a woman calmly stated. Her voice had a soothing charm to it.

"Caiaphas," the girl, Pandora, growled.

I took a risky peek through the strands of hair that had fallen in front of my face. Pandora's plasma sword somehow returned to its solid state. A pair of black boots and the edge of a white lab coat entered my limited vision and was walking towards Pandora.

"Honestly, I was perfectly fine with you running around without a leash. Stealing lab property. Sure, it was useless without you anyway. No big deal. Messing with that bus during the hurricane? Risky, but hey you helped prove my hypothesis that Reality Shift is possible. So good on you," Caiaphas gleefully said. Did she mean the crazy girl trying to kill me for no apparent reason was behind the bus? Yeah I bought it. Caiaphas clicked her tongue against her front teeth in disdain.

"But then you had to go and let Alice out of the hospital. To be fair, that was partial irresponsibility on my part. I mean I nearly had Kiyama killed for that," Caiaphas mournfully admitted. She sighed. "And now you've given me no choice but to bring you in."

"I am only trying to take what is mine!" Pandora shouted.

Caiaphas stopped walking. A jovial yet condescending laugh crackled from the woman. "That is so cute. 'What is mine,'" she cheerfully mocked with a quick chuckle that sharply cut off. "_You_ are nothing but an experiment that is still of some use to me. I needn't remind you to what becomes of those who run out of use."

Pandora emitted an animalistic growl. "I can hear her, whispering in the back of my head. Simply give me the girl and I'll show you what Mikoto can really do," she calmly declared.

The woman began a much longer, louder laugh. I heard her take a deep breath in through her nose. "You're killing me today kid. Ahh, Mikoto Misaka is already bonded with Lain. Even if you caught her, she'd be of little use to you. And what you 'hear' is nothing but an echo. Just like you, in a poetic sense. So little echo, are you going to come quietly?"

"I'm bonded with Lain? No, no, no, _she's_ bonded with Lain. But I…I…I am," Pandora started to mumble.

Caiaphas sighed. "Not this crap again. Ugh. Unit RN-157: requesting Priority Access. Permission: Caiaphas."

Pandora fell silent, snapping to attention. "Execute subroutine: Thunderstruck," Caiaphas stated. The girl limply collapsed onto the ground. I too was finding the struggle to stay conscious difficult.

I only saw a bit of it from my pitiful vantage point. It was still enough to make my list of most screwed up things I'd ever seen: in front of the collected work of Criss Angel but before the Star Wars Holiday Special. Hmm, yeah definitely before the Holiday Special. Girl's gotta have priorities.

Someone busted down a door and another set of boots approached. "Oh, Kimball! You're still alive, good," Caiaphas cheerfully greeted.

"You couldn't do that in the first place? Or tell me to do that?" Kimball bitterly asked.

"I'm a busy woman and I can't be everywhere at once. Do you think this city simply runs itself? Don't answer that," Caiaphas said. "Anyway, do you get off at your usual time tonight? Good. Let's fly into to Huston and hit up some clubs. I feel like taking tequila shots out of a stripper's rack and hitting on younger men all night."

What was wrong with that woman?

"You're shameless boss," Kimball dryly replied.

"I'll take that as a yes then."

"Fine whatever. What do you want to do with this one? Take her back to the lab?"

My heart started pounding. Come on, fight it Ruiko. You are not going to wake up in some secret lab for these weirdoes to run tests on.

"Nah, my Level Upper theory says that a Level Zero can't retain the boost," Caiaphas said. Oh kick a girl while she's down.

"Find her a good place to wake up; she'll probably think it was all a dream anyway. Might as well be a freaking dream. Didn't get any readings or a blood sample or anything," Caiaphas muttered in an increasingly distant tone. I hated to trust her word, but I finally entered the black.

I shot up in a cold sweat. A blanket was draped over me on a couch, in what looked like a Judgment Office. My head swiveled around a bit and I saw a familiar flowery headband in front of a large computer. My legs felt heavy as I forced them to the floor. I tried to get up only to wind up on the floor. My head felt dizzy.

Uiharu rushed to my side. "Easy Saten. Officer Kimball dropped you off a couple of hours ago. You were passed out from a huge nose bleed and your cloths were all torn up from that prototype security bot that went nuts at the mall," she calmly said. She helped me back onto the couch.

"Robot?" I croaked. Something about the word sounded hollow. I tried to think back to the mall. All I remembered was—

"Lain, where is Lain?" I demanded. Uiharu grabbed my shoulder and helped me back onto the couch. My head felt like it was spinning.

"She's fine, Saten. Well unharmed anyway. Anti-Skill dropped her off not long after you. All she's done is rock in the fetal position and whisper things to herself. I don't think Misaka will be able to get her out of this one when she gets here," she said.

I wanted to argue about meeting in the arcade, about me kicking Misaka's butt at air hockey and topping high scores all afternoon. Alas I had no fight left in me. As I waited, I forced myself to remember what happened. Nothing came to me. All that was there was a haunting black spot in the center of my mind's eye.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: Happy belated new year y'all. How do I start off twenty-fifteen? By getting back to my roots and work on _Project: Apocrypha_? Posting the next exciting chapter of _Knighthood_? No, I indulged myself with this number. What are my other readers going to do, petition me with a swarm of PMs or angry reviews?

So I'm honestly amazed this story's gotten eighty views at the time of posting this chapter. I appreciate it. Thank you for keeping up with this little guy.

I know, I know: who randomly switches perspectives like that? Well, it happens. Deal with it.

We got a look at some new characters today. Feel free to wildly speculate about them in a review. When I was putting together the character of Caiaphas, I wasn't sure how I wanted her personality to play out. Then I binged watch _Parks and Recreation_ all last week (so that's where my productivity went). This leads to last Saturday when I had a random thought: what if Ann Perkins got the ambition and ruthlessness to take over the world? That is all.

Leave a review or PM me a comment or question to tell me what you think.

Until next time, I got so drunk a couple weeks ago and railed at this hack writer I found on this site {Turns out that it was me}


	7. Layer VII

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer VII: It's Only Mathematics

The day finally arrived. Kuroko and I were taking a maglev train to District One. We had a meeting with Doctor Kiyama and her patient, Alice Mizuki. I was going to get answers today. Nothing was going to stop me this time.

I looked out the window, watching the Gulf of Mexico rush by. I wished we didn't have to leave Saten and Lain behind. Uiharu had some work for Judgment to do so she couldn't come anyway.

The facility we were going to only allowed two non-familial guests per patient a day. I didn't want to take Lain on this trip because I wasn't sure if I could trust this Doctor Kiyama. Anti-Skill seemed to not care about her even after our run in. That wasn't exactly a reassuring notion.

Kuroko volunteered to come along. I suspected that she had set up some crazy seduction scheme for afterwards. She never learned.

Saten said she was fine hanging out with Lain for the afternoon, claiming she wanted some "LZ Bonding." But only if we agreed to meet up in the arcade afterwards, terms I was happy to accept. I was starting to think that Lain wasn't a Level Zero at all. Though I believed we all were starting to think that in some way.

Kuroko claimed she didn't do anything when I slipped during the storm. I believed her because if she did, she'd have attempted to use it to guilt me into at least sharing a bed for a night. Like that was going to happen.

But I knew someone had to have helped me. I felt someone grab my hand. I knew I did.

Then there was what happened when Lain touched Kuroko the first time they met. Now I wasn't sure if Kuroko was able to break through on her own or if Lain…did something. More importantly, if she did do something: what was it? Could she do it again?

The farther away I got from her, the more I felt uneasy. First I thought it was just my usual need to be around my friends. But when my mind wandered away a nagging, _primal_ urge simmered in the depths. It demanded that I go to Lain, that I be near her.

Not like Kuroko felt about me. More like a maternal yearning.

The train slowed to a stop. Kuroko and I made to the exit. District One was very different from most of the other districts. For one there were no schools in District One. Instead there were about two dozen laboratories. Some were operated outside governments, others were privately owned, three were run by Texan Universities, and four belonged to other academic institutions. Though they couldn't legally test on students, rather they picked up City graduates who either weren't ready to or didn't want to integrate with the rest of society.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I wasn't going to be someone's damn lab rat. No gilded cage for me.

I didn't think less of those who chose that option. A quick search on the Wired provided one a buffet of atrocities committed against Espers in the early years before Academy City. Children stoned to death, limbs hacked off, general ostracizing; but the world had moved on since then. I wasn't scared of it.

We stepped out into District One proper. This district was also home to the more serious medical institutions. Basically anything more than a broken arm was treated here. That included the one we were visiting. It specialized in treating Espers with telepathic abilities.

We quickly realized we were in a different part of the city. With few exceptions like Church Street, Academy City was pretty consistent in its construction. Modern, organic, and upbeat architecture underlined with technology in a white and blue color scheme.

District One was different. It was the site of the island's original research facilities. Many of them were simply repurposed by their new owners. Thus the whole district was pragmatic and industrial in design and color. I wouldn't call it oppressive or dour necessarily. Not pretty was a better way to describe it.

Outside an especially large and extremely not pretty lab, my head started to spin faster and faster. Kuroko braced me up.

Where was I? The mall?

Lain, crying! For me? Where! Where!

A figure in black approached! A fearless girl! Friends or foes?

Foes! Danger! Familiar!

My stomach felt like I took a massive punch. I was back in District One. A cold sweat had formed around my brow. My lungs demanded oxygen.

I took a deep breath. Was that…real?

"What's wrong Sissy?" My friend asked. The world came back into focus. I saw a pair of black boots and the wispy tail end of a lab coat. They paused for a moment before departing.

"I…I don't know," I grumbled.

"Are you going to be alright?" Kuroko asked. I nodded. No need to worry her yet. After a few more minutes we finally made it to the hospital we were looking.

The lady at the front desk checked us in. She pointed us in the direction to Kiyama's office. Apparently Alice's physician needed to be present during visitations. That was disconcerting to say the least.

We past a corridor marked "Testament Treatment Center." Several technicians were moving a very large machine with a seat and a strange helmet apparatus attached to it. Kuroko raised an eyebrow at the sight.

We walked up the stairs and down the sterile white halls to the office. I knocked on the open door. The lights were off. Kuroko flipped them on.

They illuminated a pigsty of a room. Papers and boxes were stacked nearly to the ceiling. Cans and bottles of beer were mixed with a variety of fast food trash, all collecting dust on every patch of space in the room the trash could find. Doctor Kiyama was slouched face first into her gum wrapper littered desk. She was using reports from Root as a pillow. Unbecoming drool leaked from her mouth. The fading remnants of blonde dye could be seen in the last few inches of her long brown wavy hair.

The only other item on her desk besides her dusty name plate and various mechanical pencils over run with chew marks was a picture. It was a group shot of about twenty men and women dressed in business casual under lab coats standing in a semicircle. A small server looking device was situated in front of the group. Amongst the small crowd was a younger Doctor Kiyama. A sly grin was strewn across her lips. The woman to her right had her face scratched out.

Behind the sleeping doctor was a wall lined with degrees and certifications. Chief among them were a Doctorate of Philosophy in Biochemistry, a Master of Science in Psychology, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, as well as several medical licenses and professional engineering certifications.

Kuroko and I shared a nervous glance. I nodded, reaching out with my hand. I gently prodded Kiyama's arm.

The woman flashed to life, her right hand slipping under her lab coat. The couple lanyards around her neck flung every which way. One was a battered ID card. The other was a weird pen looking thing that had a mouthpiece of sorts on it.

She shook her head, took a deep breath, and wiped her mouth. "Sorry, sorry," she mumbled.

Kiyama's eyes were ringed with stress lines and heavy bags. They sort of lit up when they landed on me. "Well it's not every day you get to meet one of the city's favorite daughters," she said with faux admiration, "The famous Railgun. What can I do for you?"

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow a bit. The doctor was listed as a Japanese national in her file. Yes all her post-graduate work was done in the United States, and she hadn't been back in years. But she had no trace of an accent. I had teachers back at school with similar education and time away from their home country and still had an accent.

The doctor slowly stood up, brushing a layer crumbs off of her stained white blouse and ruffled black skirt. She started to straighten out the barely on black tie that hung on her neck. "We're here to see Alice Mizuki," I said. Kiyama looked up from fumbling with her tie with confusion painted on her face.

"Alice? Alice?" She repeated over a couple of times.

"Your patient?" Kuroko interjected. Kiyama snapped her fingers. She picked up a clipboard from underneath a pile of gum wrappers.

"Right," she dryly responded. She pulled on a threadbare, white lab coat. "Well follow me." We went out into the hall and started walking down to the wards.

"You have quite the collection of degrees," Kuroko commented. Kiyama nodded.

"Yes, I was originally hired by the UN in the early days of the city to study how Esper powers manifest and operate. Free housing, decent pay, and exciting new fields to explore; everything a newly minted PhD grad could want," Kiyama sighed. "But eventually they got bigger and better brains on that project so they let me go."

"Why stay here then?" I asked. Her skills would fetch a nice job anywhere in the world.

"Because I got recruited by Root as a…consultant of sorts for Project Lain," she mumbled.

"Wait, Lain?" I stuttered.

"Yeah, Project Lain," she irritably reiterated. She nonchalantly punched in the security code to access the ward.

"Sorry doctor, but why did Root hire you?" Kuroko asked as we passed into the ward. I felt like I ran into a brick wall. My butt was literally sent to the ground. Kuroko helped me up. It felt like something was drilling into every nerve ending in my body. I glanced up to see Kiyama pretentiously rubbing her right thumb and forefinger together.

"I was wondering what would happen when you came in here," Kiyama mused.

It took me a minute to get back on my feet. Kiyama lazily pointed up to a spinning silver ball installed on the ceiling. "That was my project while getting my master degrees. It distorts electrical signals at just the right frequency to cancel out an Esper's ability but not destroy other equipment. Brilliant right?" she sarcastically quipped at the end.

"So why not _warn_ me about it?" I angrily demanded.

Kiyama shook her head, pushing on ahead. "Because I was curious," she said. A certain word was coming to mind about my opinion of the doctor. I formed a light magnetic field around me. That eased the feeling of pain.

The doctor stopped in front of a door marked "Mizuki, A."

The door hissed open after the doctor entered the access code. Alice's room was filled with graffiti and paintings. "She was real!" and "We knew her!" were the most popular phrases hand painted on the wall. The paintings depicted a fuzzy rendition of Lain, really only getting the hair right. Alice was looking out the only window in the room.

"Hey kid, you've got visitors," Kiyama lazily greeted.

Alice looked up. Hair fell all over her face. Her brown eyes widened with recognition. She ran up, stopping just short of me. "It's you. It's you! It's you! It's you!" she said in an enthusiastic crescendo.

"Yes. I'm Mikoto," I said.

"Lain is still with you?" she asked. I carefully took a glance at Kiyama. A scornful scowl marred her face.

"Yes she is," I answered. Alice giggled with delight. Kiyama cleared her throat.

"Ms. Misaka, I'm going to have to ask that you not feed my patient's psychosis," she scolded.

"Lain is real! Mikoto saw her, Mikoto _knows_ her!" Alice eagerly countered. Kiyama sighed.

"Alice, we've been over this," the doctor growled. Alice's brow twitched.

"I saw her, I saw her! She was at the club, Lain was _there_! Just like…just like before," Alice insisted.

My hand went to my face. I gently clawed into my temple. Kuroko cleared her throat and stepped in front of Kiyama. "I'm sorry Doctor Kiyama. Misaka wasn't thinking," she said. "We're not used to this."

Kiyama grumbled something under her breath. "Fine, whatever. Just don't excite her anymore," she relented. I nodded and looked into Alice's eyes. Alice seemed to take the hint. By the distant appearance of said eyes, that understanding probably wasn't going to last very long.

"Alright Alice, what do you remember before what you showed me?"

Alice cocked her head back and forth. Come on give me something!

"New girl. Arrived one day. Quiet. Unassuming. Befriended," Alice started.

"Computers, loved. Then club. Woman. Nervous. Darkness," she continued. Her body started to tremble. She clutched her right temple, brushing aside her bang. "Then the _machine_. The red eye. Eating. Chewing. _Destroying_…destroying _me_."

She retracted her hand. I saw four strange dot shaped scars arranged in a diamond on her temple through the strands of hair. Tears flowed down her cheeks. Kiyama slammed her foot into the ground.

"That's enough. This visit is over," she growled. I turned towards the doctor, fist clench. Kuroko stepped between us.

"I think the doctor is right, Misaka. We should be off," my friend insisted.

The three of us exited the room. I motioned for Kuroko to go on ahead while I followed Kiyama back to her office.

"Something else you want besides agitating my patient, Railgun?" the doctor asked. She sat down at her desk.

"You said you used to study how Esper powers operate. I was wondering if there was an ability that could increase the power of another Esper?" I asked.

Kiyama cocked her head in surprise. "It's only mathematics in the end, so yes the fabled Level-Upper ability could possibly manifest," she mused. "Are you looking to break the Bertrand-Liu Theory? There _is_ a Nobel..."

Her cellphone chirped. She checked the phone then shoved it into her jacket's pocket; a frown fell across her face and walked back up to me.

Our eyes met. My heart skipped a beat. It was like staring into the heart of a void. The woman reached out, grabbing the side of my face. Her thumb pulled down my right eyelid. Her dead eyes stared at something I couldn't see. Her lips twitched. "But I doubt that you'd seek me out for something a simple search on the Wired could tell you. So what do you _really_ want from me, Mikoto Misaka?" she asked me, emphasizing the first syllable of each of my names.

It hurt. I wanted to zap her to ash, to turn her to dust. My body refused to react. "The…the truth. About you, about Alice, about…Lain, about…everything," I finally mustered. An evil smile came to her lips, nodding a bit.

"The truth?" Kiyama repeated. Her cold hand started to crawl up my cheek, her thumb landing squarely on the front of my forehead. "People think that the truth will somehow set them free. No, Railgun, in this city the truth will only end up imprisoning you." The woman gently pulled her thumb down to just above my brow.

"Much like your friend in the ward; so take my advice: keep to your happy little life. Go to class, graduate, then leave this place and never come back."

Kiyama let go. No, I had come too far. The doctor headed for the exit. "Please, Doctor Kiyama, who is Lain?" I shouted.

The doctor paused. Her head shook side to side for a moment. "Just keep her safe now, Railgun. That's all you can do," she said barely above a whisper. She continued on her way out.

My eyes blinked. I was on the train with Kuroko. She was keeping a surprising amount of restrain, sitting with her hands under her thighs about half a meter away from me. I was honestly a bit surprised. Kuroko rarely gave up a chance to ogle me.

I sat up. Kuroko turned to me. "Hey, you're up. The doctor said you went into some sort of shock state brought on by the rapid change in environment or something," she said. A headache ripped open. I think that Kiyama might not have lied. "And I hate to ruin an already crappy day, but we have to go by my office. There was an incident at the mall and Saten got hurt. Fortunately, it wasn't bad."

"What kind of incident?" I groaned out.

"A security robot prototype went haywire," she said.

I shook my head. My gut told me it was a lie. "No it wasn't a robot," I said. Kuroko shot me a suspicious glance.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"I saw...Saten squaring off with someone at the mall," I responded.

"Who? Why? How?" Kuroko asked. Confusion dripped off of every word.

"Lain...showed me. I don't know, but trust me. Hand me your make up mirror," I said. Kuroko did so. I popped it open and pulled down my right eye lid. A glowing light blue film had formed under my eye! The plastic mirror fell from my hand

Kuroko caught the plastic sundry out of the air. She braced my shoulder. "You need to talk to me Sissy; you can't keep it inside forever," she insisted. I curled over my knees. What the hell was going on?

I took a deep breath and showed her what I saw. Kuroko scratched the side of her head. "I think you might want to get that looked at," she deadpanned. Her body tensed up.

"Yeah, I'll call Doctor Cutter when we get home," I said. Kuroko nodded in agreement.

She checked my other eye, which was perfectly fine.

We arrived at the office some thirty minutes later. Saten was in a deep yet frantic thought on the couch. Uiharu was in her chair passing a nervous stare between Saten and Lain, who was rocking back and forth by the window.

Saten was a mess. Her hair was frazzled and an unsafe amount of what appeared to be blood stained the front of her shirt.

Lain was in slightly better shape. There was no blood on her at least. Her eyes were glassed over. Her lips spoke silent words.

Uiharu turned to us. A relieved sigh escaped her mouth. "Oh thank god you're here," she said.

I nodded. "It seems we've had a weird day," I said.

"Yeah, those two have been like this pretty much since they've been brought back," Uiharu said. Kuroko bit her lip a moment then sat down next to Saten, offering her some solace. Uiharu went back to work. I walked over to Lain. She calmed at my approach.

I knelt down and gently cupped her face. My thumb instinctively went to her left eye. I pulled down her lower eyelid. A layer of glowing blue film had developed under her eye as well.

Her eyelid slipped from my grip. Our foreheads touched. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it, I didn't mean to," Lain whispered.

"What did you?" I quietly asked.

Lain turned to Saten. "I broke her," she wailed.

The room fell silent. Everyone else was now staring at Lain. Saten calmly stood up and walked over. She violently yanked Lain away from me. She held Lain by her collar, easily lifting her a few centimeters up in the air. I could hear the anger seething from Saten's every breath. Lain limply hung in her grasp as if in a dream, her head falling to the side.

I stood up. An aura of electricity formed around me. "Put her down," I growled.

"Sissy," Kuroko warned.

"What did you do to me? Why can't I remember?" Saten demanded. She shook Lain. The girl danced like a rag doll flying through the air in Saten's grip.

"I don't…know. I…I think…I broke the Barriers of your Mind," Lain lamented.

Saten started to tremble. Her grip gave out, sending Lain back to the floor. "Then I had…had an ability?" she whispered. She started examining her hands.

I gently grabbed Saten's arm. I quickly moved my hands up to her face and pulled down her eyelids. There was a thick blue film similar to the film I saw in my own eye was underneath both of Saten's eyes. Only the film under her eyes wasn't glowing. It looked rather dead actually.

The film creepily crawled out onto her cheeks and rolled down to the floor. Uiharu quickly grabbed a plastic bag. She picked up the gelatinous blobs with a pair of tweezers, placing them in the bag.

I released Saten. She rushed outside before we could say anything. Uiharu handed Kuroko the bag and followed Saten out.

Lain tugged at my arm. "I want to go home," she mumbled. Kuroko nodded, slipping the bag into her purse. We took a bus back to our apartment.

Kuroko took a shower and I crashed on the couch. Lain sat in front of her computer. Delphi, she called it.

The girl disappeared whenever she logged onto that machine. It was like she wasn't even in the room. Only the occasional rhythmic typing from her fingers reminded me that she was still physically in the room.

Windows would pop up and close down at a ridiculous speed. Various readouts and files of code filled the spaces in between.

The longer I stared at Lain and her work the more I felt like I was drifting off with her. Whispers started tickling my ears. The world disappeared into a vortex of white noise.

I tried to find my room to take my sleep meds but I couldn't even find my body. The world had become flurry of…something. Nothing tangible but still capable of causing pain. I wanted to curl into a ball.

Something like a hand fell on what must have been my shoulder. The world fell into order. It was like being at the heart of a giant shipping center. Packages came in and went out after going through a few layers of processing before going off to their final destination.

It was surprisingly beautiful to watch the parcels move from place to place.

My stomach felt like it was dropping. I gasped for air, back safely in the living room. Lain was standing over me, her eyes wide and her index finger hovering over her lips.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: Some chapters just right themselves. This one certainly did. Where do I even start? Well there is Dr. Kiyama. I haven't had that much fun introducing a character in a long time. The mad/eccentric scientist archetype has gotten a lot of retooling as of late. Rick Sanchez, Rintarō Okabe, and alike always make me smile. Anyway I really wanted to drive a comparison between Caiaphas and Kiyama's personalities with this chapter.

I'm going to be honest with you for just a moment: I map everything out most of the time but sometimes specific underlying things don't get formed until fingers hit the keyboard. This usually leads me to rereading the story to pick out some minor detail and re-purpose it. So I have to rewrite whole sections of the current chapter in order to maintain some continuity.

What did you think? Leave a review and tell me.

Check out my profile soon. Important updates will be coming soon.

Until next time, build more interdenominational portal guns {I see nothing going wrong with that}


	8. Layer VIII

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer VIII: Rules are Meant to be Broken

My hand shakily wrapped around my fourth cup of coffee. I failed to sleep again after Lain woke me. The rest of the night was spent watching the girl. I was just too scared to go back.

All throughout the night Lain failed sleep too. She didn't seem to notice my plight. Her attention was only on her computer. If she was tired or at all sleepy, she hid it well.

Occasionally I heard things, voices whispering in the shadows. Sometimes I heard Lain. She would giggle and laugh at unheard conversation partners. In that strange other world, she came alive.

By the time the sun rose, I had already left. I wandered the city for hours. Any security bots that tried to assist me get home got shocked into oblivion.

But the voices continued follow me. They started to blend together, creating whispering hiss tickling the inside of my ears. When I shut out the voices, Kiyama's words about the truth and the city entered in their place. Occasionally Lain would appear in the corner of my vision, silencing all. I tried to chase her, hoping for an answer that never came. She vanished the moment after I saw her.

Then I...woke up, for lack of a better term, standing in front of a small, discrete café near the mall. The morning rush had yet to stir, leaving me and a few other early birds the only customers. My leg started to impatiently shake up and down.

I was waiting for Uiharu. I sent her a text asking her to meet me at the café. She said she'd be here soon and that she had some news.

The coffee burned a bit as it went down. A heavy buzz sent jitters all over my body. My skin tingled a bit and I heard random pops of static all around. My heart rate rose a bit.

It took a minute for me to still my mind enough to reign in the static. Being taken in by Anti-Skill on an uncontrolled power display wasn't going to be a good start to my day.

The doorbell chimed and a flowery headband entered the room. Uiharu sat down without her usual cheer. She bit her lip. "You look...unwell," she quietly stated. No doubt.

"I didn't exactly sleep," I mumbled. "How's Saten?"

Uiharu bit her lip. "She's still upset and locked in her room. So at least she's safe. I alerted her floor supervisor to keep her from doing something..."

"Something what?"

"Something rash," she finally admitted.

"I'll talk to her later. Anyway I asked you here because I remembered you said that Lain sounded familiar," I said. "Do you think that she has something to do with Project Lain?"

The girl banged her head against the table. "Oh my god! I am so stupid!" she groaned. "Project Lain was the precursor to Project Avri!" She smacked her head a couple of times.

"That sounds a little important to forget," I dryly commented.

Uiharu shook her head. "Sorry, but not really. Lain was shut down entirely after the Protocol Seven Fiasco," she explained. "I only heard about when I was going through some older code files. The comments kept comparing Avri functions to Lain functions and explaining differences. It was all pointless to me and I never really thought about it much afterward."

I'd have to look into Project Lain later. "So what's the news you have for me?" I asked. Uiharu nodded.

"I found something about the Avri that refused us access to St. Germaine's," she said. Her voice cranked down to a whisper. I leaned in to hear her. "Misaka, it was one of the big three."

My eyes reflexively blinked. Uiharu frowned. "It's one of the units Root keeps in their HQ," she hissed. I kept my face blank.

"Why is that important?" I asked. My friend sighed.

"Avri architecture is based on a distributed hierarchy. The unit that gave us the runaround shouldn't have known we were there. Not in the amount of time we were on," she explained.

"So someone screwed with the way the Avri's are supposed to work?"

"Precisely. But not just someone, Misaka. Someone at the _top_."

"You are seriously suggesting that there is a conspiracy behind this?" I asked.

"It has to be. There is no way an outsider could access that unit," Uiharu insisted.

"Kiyama," I growled.

"The doctor you saw yesterday?"

"Yeah, she said she worked for Root. That she was on Project Lain."

"But I thought she was a psychologist?"

"Try a biochemist, electrical engineer, _and_ a psychologist."

Uiharu let out a sharp whistle. "Holy crap, why is she working at a hospital?" she asked out loud. I shrugged my shoulders. A wave of dread seemed to wash over us. Uiharu bowed her head and bit her lip.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" she followed up.

"I don't…I don't know," I answered. I stood up.

"Are you scared?" Uiharu asked. I nodded. Why bother lying about it. We stumbled upon something. It didn't make a difference if it was a conspiracy, a shadow organization, or a top secret government experiment. I doubt that anyone would have listen to us at that point.

Maybe I should have reassured Uiharu. Maybe I should have told her that I was willing to go all the way and discover who or what Lain was. But at that moment, I wanted to call Anti-Skill and have Lain taken away as an illegal resident.

Every time the thought came to me, Kiyama's words crept in too. Keep her safe? Safe from what? From who? I needed to get out into the fresh air. A clear head would help.

"Call Saten, tell her I'll be by later," I said. I walked out of the café and started for somewhere else. Every time an answer was within reach, the rug got yanked and I was left with more questions.

I got lost deep in thought and the city, ending up in an unoccupied square. A heavy gust of wind washed over my face and body. I ducked my head down to protect my eyes.

I looked up after the wind calmed to see Lain standing in front of me. She was wearing light red blouse under a cream colored jacket and dark jeans. I couldn't help but take a couple steps back.

Lain's expression was blank as always. Her light brown eyes locked with mine. "Are you…are you really here?" I whispered. The girl nodded.

"I heard you. You sounded scared," she said. She held out her hand.

"Were you out there too, last night? Why didn't you say something!" I demanded. Lain shook her head.

"I was merely watching you. Making sure you stayed safe," she said.

"Watching me? Watching me! I saw you! You had to have been out there to watch me!" I screamed.

"I was…I was watching from the Wired," Lain replied.

"Wha? H—how is that possible? The Wired is just…is just a computer network, a fancy way to communicate with others. It's nothing more than a bunch of electrons and wires!"

Lain shook her head. "No, Misaka. The Wired _is_ a real place. You've been there. You've seen it."

"No, you're lying. I've never been there. It was all an illusion created in my mind," I frantically mumbled.

"Do you truly believe that, Misaka?"

My head started spinning. I started digging my nails into my forehead.

"Do I?"

"Do I?"

"Do I?"

"Ah! You aren't real. Lain is still at home. You are just a figment of my imagination. A lie. An illusion. Now go away, go away! Go away!" I screamed.

I heaved for air, bracing against my knees. Lain was still there. A frown now crossed her face. The mirage wasn't fading or even walking away.

My body began to tremble. A smile twitched onto my face. Sparks started to light up around me. Crackling laughter erupted from my lips. "I know what will get rid of you. A little shock therapy!"

I clenched my fist, turning my own power back on myself. Electricity coursed through my body. Any semblance of grogginess was zapped to oblivion. The burn increased every second.

I stopped after a few moments. Residual static rippled over my skin before winking out. My knees gave out. My lungs stung with every breath I took. My toes and hands twitched and curled uncontrollably.

Lain was still standing before me. A horrified grimace marred her face. I reached out my hand again. Charged particles started flow around me once again.

I felt buffeted by something. Lain had wrapped me in a tight hug. "Please stop it Misaka. Please. I'm sorry, I never meant for you to hurt yourself. Please stop!" she begged through a layer of tears.

"You…you're really here?" I asked. Lain nodded again. I grabbed her shoulders. My fingers pressed into her flesh. A relieved sigh escaped me.

"Lain, what happened? Yesterday at the mall," I asked after a moment to catch my breath.

We looked deep into each other's eyes. I felt the world spinning again. My eyes blinked. They opened up to stare into a mirror.

I snapped out back into reality. Lain and I were a now sitting farther apart. "What does that mean?" I asked.

Lain shook her head. "When…when it came to the mall. It felt…felt like you were there, but not you," she said.

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I."

I stood up and helped Lain to her feet. "Great, blind and deaf," I muttered.

"What should we do?" Lain asked.

"Home, we'll go home. I'll call the doctor to get us checked out," I said. Everything was spinning. A minute or two of peace was all I wanted.

I drew my hand up to just below my right eye. Lain touched my hand. She pulled down my hand, squeezing it gently. I felt the uncertainty sweat off the girl.

"It'll be fine," I assured her.

We walked back hand in hand back to my apartment. Lain sat on the couch and I dialed Dr. Cutter's office. I only got the voicemail.

I left my message, careful not to reveal too much about Lain. I sat down next to her. We sat there in a dazed silence for a while.

Lain brought me back to reality with a tug on my sleeve. "Can we see Satan?" she asked. I nodded. I texted Uiharu, and she responded. Saten was still at her apartment.

We arrived about half an hour later.

I found Saten's apartment number and we rode the elevator. Lain spent the trip staring at her feet. Occasionally she clasped her hands together in front of me.

My foot started tapping the floor of the elevator. The doors finally parted. We entered the hallway and went down to Saten's apartment. I knocked on the door.

There was a moment of silence. We heard some shuffling behind the door. The lock retracted. Saten slowly cracked open the door. Only a single, bloodshot eye peaked through the barely parted doorway. Her eerie, heavy breathing reached over to us.

"Wha...what are you doing here?" she whimpered.

"Lain and I want to make sure you were alright," I answered. Saten began to quiver.

"Alright? Alright? That…that…that _thing_ screwed with my head! How could I possibly, possibly be alright?" the girl growled. Her entire body shook with her words. She threw open the door.

Saten's long black hair was frazzled and random locks shot out in every direction, a few of them obscured parts of the left side of her face. Her face and arms were covered in nail marks. She was barely clothed, wearing only a thin white tank top and short shorts. The first signs of dark rings had manifested under her eyes. Her fists were clenched. Her chest heaved.

"Let's just talk this through," I carefully suggested.

"I'm missing hours of my life where I was like everyone else! What exactly is there to talk about?" Saten shouted. Lain grabbed my hand. Her icy grip was enough to make me tense up.

"Please Saten, I didn't know that was going to happen. I never wanted to hurt you," Lain pleaded.

"Too freaking late for that, _Lain_," Saten spat.

"There is no need to be angry," I interjected. Saten glared at me.

"That _thing_ gave me power and now I don't have them anymore. How else should I feel?" Saten barked. "Unless it wants to give them back."

Lain shook her head. "No Saten, I won't," she whispered.

Saten slammed her fist against the door, locking it open. She marched up to Lain and forced herself into the other girl's face. "What, am I not good enough for you? Am I just another piece of Level Zero scum to be ignored by your almighty presence?" she hissed.

"That's unfair Saten. You know that Lain cares about you as much as rest of us," I coolly stated. I positioned myself so that my shoulder was between the other girls.

The black haired girl turned to me with fire in her eyes. "Don't speak to me about fairness, _Railgun_. I've worked every year since I've been here to reach even Level One, to feel like I belong here. Now you tell me that for a brief moment that I was like everyone else and I can't even remember it! Tell me what is fair about that!" she spat. Lain hung her head as low as possible, eyes locked onto her feet. Tears fell to the ground.

"Okay so I don't understand your position. But that doesn't mean I'm not your friend. I want to help you! Please Saten, talk with us. We can work this out," I pleaded.

Saten twirled around and marched to her doorway. She violently punched the front of her door. Her breath was ragged. She retracted her fist and leaned her back against the door, motioning for us to enter her apartment.

We entered her apartment to find it almost completely trashed. Clothes and crumpled paper were strewn everywhere. One of her school uniforms was torn at the seams. A smashed hand mirror lay at the feet of a far wall. A long cord was stretched out on the small table.

Lain and I sat down on the couch next to the shattered mirror. Saten slunk her body over the chair across from us.

"So what do you remember from the mall?" I started off. Saten rubbed the bridge of her nose near her eyes. She groaned a bit as her brow wrinkled in thought.

"Not much. It's like I'm trying to…remember a dream. There are people, things, voice but blurry and meshed," she groaned. "A name, a name, a name. There was a name."

I took a deep breath. I wasn't going to push her. Lain squirmed a bit next to me. Saten started to furiously rubbing her temples. Her eyes looked in every which way.

Lain bit her lip. Saten began to shake. "Kiyama, I remember Kiyama," she finally said.

A spark lit in the pit of my stomach. My fist reflexively clenched. My nails dug deep into my skin. Kiyama wasn't there so someone must have mentioned her. Unless it was a different Kiyama. I shook my head. It had to be the good doctor, nothing else made sense.

Who was there that would mention her? Lain said that I was there but that still didn't make sense to me. Anti-Skill was there. Kiyama worked with Root, so odds are she rubbed shoulders with Anti-Skill officers.

"Was Kiyama there?" I asked. I was hoping that might help Saten sort out her thoughts.

My friend finally shook her head. "No but there was…was someone. I know her from somewhere," she muttered. "Maybe…maybe Anti-Skill. She fought the…the shade."

"Shade?" I asked.

"The thing that started this whole fiasco," Lain quietly stated.

"Yes…yes, it was black and blue and faceless," Saten added. That must have been what Anti-Skill was there to cover up.

I nodded. "Can you remember anything else?"

Saten shook her head. I sighed and stood up. "Are you going to be alright?" I asked. Saten nodded.

Lain and I took our leave. "Misaka," Saten called out before we exited. "See…you later."

I smiled. "Will do," I said.

Back on the street, I pulled out my phone. Dr. Cutter left a message, telling me to come by in a couple hours. Lain and I walked down to the train station. The late morning crowd was starting to come out in force. I checked the timetable.

Tests were coming up quick. I hadn't studied worth a damn over the past few weeks. My compulsion to sort out Lain's past had consumed all of my free time. I barely noticed. My homework must have been piling up pretty high.

The trains arrived exactly on time. We boarded the one headed for District Two. It was empty save for the few sick and injured students, as well as a few who needed assistance from the student administration. Getting an appropriate amount of space was a little difficult task. Doable, but not easy.

Within a few minutes the train arrived in the appropriate station. We stepped out onto a fairly occupied platform. Several teachers were attempting to shepherd a few dozen elementary students into our train. The kids had special reward stickers on them. The pleasant buzz of the laughter of children and the chatter of older students mixed with the sweet aroma of fresh hot chocolate and coffee. A salty sea breeze whipped it all together into a strange haze.

The children began boarding the train in droves. We ended up fighting a tidal wave of germ-infested miniature humans. I felt a magnetic shift, like a train moving on the track and it was heading towards the station. But the boards read that the next train wasn't due for another ten minutes.

A shrill scream shattered the serene moment. Panic erupted over the crowd. I swam through the kids, leaving Lain behind. I made it to the end of the platform in time to see another train coming in at full speed. There wasn't enough time to evacuate the train already in the station.

More and more chaos spread over people in the station. My hand fumbled down into pocket. I found a nickel buried trapped in a ball of lint. I tightly clenched it, yanking it free of my pants.

I tried to aim over my pounding heart. The shot had to be perfect: just enough to dislodge it from its current course into the other track but not too much as to cause major collateral damage. No suitable calculations came to me. I…I didn't have enough control over my ability to pull off the shot. Rules were meant to be broken, but what was the point if I couldn't break them in my favor?

I shut off my ears and closed my eyes. I didn't want to acknowledge what was about to happen. My hand started to fall to my side.

Someone forced my hand back up. My eyes opened enough to see a girl holding my arm up. It was Lain! Her eyes were glowing and aimed at the train. I felt my subconscious fire off a series of insane calculation. It was enough to give me a headache. The world turned into a swirling mist of mathematics.

I wasn't flying like usual as the power built in the tips of my fingers. It was like I was choking on air.

The nickel launched out of my hand. It impacted the train at a force and angle dead on to what was needed. The train lurched right, using the friction generated by the grind against the rails to slow down. A nasty screech and bright sparks erupted from the train. It remained structurally sound as it rammed into the parked train. Damage was mitigated, demolishing the crumple zone of the other train but leaving it otherwise intact.

Quiet fell over station. I looked around. There was no sign of Lain. A crowd of students had bunched up near the center.

I rushed over to find Lain. She was on her hands and knees, throwing up an unhealthy amount of blood. Her entire body quivered as she vomited again. Cold sweat cloaked her body. She strained to look up at me with sickeningly bloodshot eyes. They pleaded for some kind mercy that I couldn't provide.

Sirens echoed in the distance. Helicopters roared in from above. My phone's ringtone was able to reach my ears none the less. I pulled it out. The number was from Academy City, but the identity was blocked. My thumb reluctantly hit the answer button. I put it up to my ear.

"Hello?" I hesitantly greeted.

"Be at Root Headquarters in half an hour," Dr. Kiyama calmly requested.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: If the previous chapter wrote itself, this chapter had to be forced life. I knew what I wanted, sure. But getting there took a lot of editing and cut. To those familiar with my first person perspective projects, I tend to treat each chapter more as a single scene with one or two events and or locations with a varying degree of lead in for the next chapter. Here I wrapped up two sub plots, put in a little character moment, and advance the main plot. Not my usual method but since we are entering the home stretch, things need to be cleaned up a bit.

First off, Uiharu and the strange Avri from chapter 2. I was looking for the right place to reintroduce this and flesh it out. This also gave me a chance to air some doubt, and build upon what might lurk at the end of the journey.

Next was Misaka and Lain's meeting. Any uncertainty about the exact result of that scene is okay. Misaka may be narrating for us, but she doesn't have to say everything that happened. We also find that Misaka might not be all there in the head.

Saten's little arc is a little rushed, happening over three consecutive chapters. However I have left it open for continuation, especially given she might not be back for a while.

Finally, the train station section. Short, simple, brutal. Just how I like it. This was a scene I came up with early on in the planning phase of the project. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted it to end.

Until next time, there is an exception to every rule {and an unstoppable force going towards an unmovable object}


	9. Layer IX

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer IX: The Best Laid Plans

The world slowed down around me. Approaching sirens were distant echoes. The forest of children became an open meadow.

Only Lain remained. She braced herself up against the floor, her hands slipping on a foul mixture of vomit and blood. Her eyes were bloodshot, pupils dilated. She struggled to breathe, her body quivering with every move. Each heave for air served only to release more fluid. There was little to distinguish the sleeves of her cream jacket from her red blouse.

The only other thing that remained was the woman on the other side of my phone call. "What?" I angrily shouted at Kiyama.

"We don't have time for this, Railgun. Leave her and go to Root Headquarters, now," Kiyama growled.

"No I am not leaving her!" I hissed.

"She's dying Mikoto."

I felt my heart skip.

"The only thing you can do to save her is to go to Root Headquarters now," Kiyama reiterated. I looked over to Lain. I certainly bought her assessment of Lain's condition. There was a sticking point though.

"I don't exactly trust you," I told her.

"This isn't about trust. This is about saving Lain. In order to do that, I need you to go to Root Headquarters," Kiyama spat back.

Kiyama sounded annoyed. "Can you really save her?" I asked.

"Not without you," she repeated.

"Fine, I'll be there," I growled. Kiyama hung up.

Betrayal filled my heart as I turned my back on Lain. I moved quickly out of the train station. Root Headquarters wasn't hard to find. I arrived with a couple of minutes to spare.

"Oh good, you're here," Kiyama mumbled as she nonchalantly past me up the steps. I grabbed some air then followed her.

Kiyama waved me past the guard. The lobby was a militant grey with a few offices located near the front. The golden tree logo of Root painted on the floor was the only color to be found.

Near the middle of the building was a vast dome shaped chamber. A long window allowed people to see inside of it. Three massive servers dominated the chamber. Technicians scurried like rats around them.

"The beating heart of Academy City," Kiyama sarcastically noted.

"The Avri units," I added.

"Yep. The center of the dumbest hive mind outside of science fiction."

"That's some harsh criticism from someone who works here," I commented. I was under the impression that Avri units were fairly smart.

"An Avri by itself is quite stupid," Kiyama stated.

"No, no that's too simple," she retracted her first statement in a grumble. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Avri units are individually more like a chimpanzee: able to recognize patterns and build simple solutions, creative but within bounds. For an AI, pretty pathetic really."

"Is that why you use a distributed hierarchy?"

The doctor's eyebrow rose. "You've been talking with Uiharu," she noted. "But yes. Organize them in the right way and they are collectively about as capable as a teenager. They've even formed a shared proto-personality."

"I take it that's why you got a degree in psychology."

"No, I got it because I thought I'd enjoy a career listening to children sent away by society discuss their feelings," the doctor dryly retorted. She stopped at a bank of elevators placed in an alcove.

Kiyama slid her ID card across a scanner. A set of doors opened and we entered the lift. It quickly descended downward. "So why help me now, doc? You seemed so meh about it last time," I asked as the elevator slowed down.

The doors parted and we entered a small lobby constructed out of concrete, the usually utilitarian material felt alive. Its smooth texture and swirling patterns felt very different from the concrete used in the buildings above. On the other side of the space was a doorway that led to a long sky bridge. It was fairly empty, save for an occasional blank console.

The doctor nodded her head side to side at my question. "Do you mean my motives beyond the need to correct for your fumbling incompetence or compensate for my bad luck?" she sarcastically quipped.

I felt my fists curl, sending my nails deep into my palms. "Fumbling incompetence?" I angrily repeated her term. Kiyama walked onto the sky bridge with me fuming right behind her. The doctor raised her hand a rolled her wrist around in a nonchalant manner.

"You throw you and your friends into danger then you go and meddle in affairs far beyond your paygrade, all without thinking of the consequences," Kiyama dryly spat. Below the sky bridge were dozens of cylindrical vats that were filled with a thick black liquid.

"I never put anyone in needless danger," I defended myself.

"Right, so stepping in to defend one girl from a few thugs wasn't a risky venture."

"They were jerks and I handled them without a hitch. Would you have left her there?"

Kiyama shoved her hand into her pocket. "So after saving the girl in question, you discover she doesn't have an ID. Instead of going to the authorities, you tried keep her a secret. Why?"

"I…I…"

Why did I not turn Lain in? It was stupid. Were we…was I just trying to be a hero instead of doing the responsible thing? But whenever I thought of being or actually was apart from Lain, I got angry and nervous and tense. No I simply refused to give her up. Was it wrong?

My answer was no, but the right answer was yes. I was wrong.

"And what about during the hurricane?" Kiyama followed up

"It was Saten who suggested we help those kids on the bus, and she was right. Who knows what would've happened if we didn't act then someone might have gotten hurt."

"Yes and if it weren't for some random act of luck it might have just been Saten and yourself. You could have been the voice of reason and discouraged them from taking such reckless actions."

"And let something happen to those kids?"

"You are being naïve, Railgun. Anti-Skill is one of the most competent emergency response groups in the world. The kids would have turned out fine regardless of your actions."

"What if you're wrong and Anti-Skill failed?"

"Then a terrible and possibly tragic fate fell over the children, as cruel and unfortunate as it sounds."

How could anyone be that freaking cold?

"Then there was today."

I smashed my fist into the glass window. "No, no, I refuse to believe you approve of me not doing anything! I will not have the blood of those kids on my hand!" I shouted. My breath grew heavy and enraged.

Kiyama stopped before the door on the other side and turned around. Shadows fell over her eyes. "Tell me Railgun, would have been so gung ho about your actions if you knew that they hurt Lain?" she rather grimly asked. The door hissed open, revealing a dark chamber on the other side. I took a step back. Lain wasn't the healthiest girl I knew but still. I'd never hurt her.

"What are you getting at? You know that I would never hurt my friends," I pointed out.

"You're actions say otherwise."

"I don't understand!"

Kiyama walked into the room. I followed her to find the room freezing. The song of hundreds of computers humming filled the air around me. On the other side of the room was a lamp shining down on a cylinder like the ones in the chamber.

The doctor pressed a button and the black liquid within it began to dissipate. "No Railgun, I think you understand perfectly," Kiyama coldly retorted.

Floating in the cylinder was Lain! She was naked and attached to an umbilical cord. Her hair was exactly as it was on the…the real…the other…the Lain I left behind. The girl in the tube was curled in the fetal position.

"Lain isn't exactly human."

So many emotions flooded in. Anger and confusion were chief among them. Sparks erupted all around my skin. I felt my body tremble.

"Careful Railgun, you don't want hurt your friend's body," Kiyama mocked.

"Who—who is Lain?" I finally asked after a moment to contain myself. An odd, nostalgic smile gently grew on Kiyama's face. It was quite unsettling actually.

"Lain was originally one of the AIs we built back in the day. Before the Protocol Seven Fiasco, we thought we were at the limits of the technology. But afterwards, the Lain Units moved beyond anything we imagined."

"But Lain…Lain is a girl!"

"Not at first. She was a program residing in one of those," Kiyama said. She pointed to a large server nearby. "She was one of four dozen others, machines gifted with true intelligence and creativity by the Fiasco. It was a researcher's dream. That's why we took the Lain Units out of the public's eye and hastily replaced them with the far inferior Avri Units."

"No, no, no Lain is flesh and blood!"

Kiyama smiled. It wasn't cruel or sly or mocking. It was the pure, unadulterated, genuine article. "See that's the brilliance of Lain, Railgun," Kiyama said. There was a hint of pride and joy buried under the sterile certainty. "The first task we ever gave them was to solve the Multi-Skill problem. And they freaking _did_. In the span of a few days they did what the best geneticists in the world couldn't do in five years: they built a gene that enabled someone to have Multi-Skill. But they went a step further without instruction or incentive, they built a whole person around that gene."

I kept quiet. Kiyama's head lowered to cast her gaze down to the floor. "Then we got greedy and planned to do a live fire test of the girl the Lain Units built. Of the dozen embryos we started with, only one made it. Unfortunately, the Multi-Skill gene suppresses the brain's natural consciousness and higher brain functions. So all we were left with was a comatose girl who died a few days later. After that…disappointment the board put a hiatus on the Lain project."

Disappointment? Disappointment? "That's...that's utterly despicable! How could you do that?"

Kiyama shrugged with indifference. "We didn't care, Railgun. Even if the girl survived, she'd have been nothing more than the princess of a gilded cage."

"Then why does Lain…well exist in her body?"

"Put your hand on the glass and find out."

I walked foreword and placed my hand on the cylinder. The Lain inside squirmed a bit. But I felt something pulling me towards her. The world started spinning as the floor gave out beneath me. I fell into a gaping void.

Everything quickly came back into focus. The room I found myself in was like a sanctuary of a church. It was cold, damp, and shaped like a hexagon. There was an empty altar at the center of the room.

"I'm in the Wired...aren't I," I mumbled. That or I just woke up from one twisted dream.

"Very good, Railgun. You've just experienced Soul Upload, something only a Level Six Electromaster could naturally achieve," Kiyama's voice echoed in my ears.

Level Six? That was impossible unless—

"Unless Lain has Level-Upper," I said under my breath.

"Correct. It was quite the find. We had to add about two hundred pages worth of work to the Razdan Theorem and smashed the Bertrand-Liu Theory," Kiyama quietly boasted.

My body tensed up. I couldn't breathe. The room started to constrict around me. I tugged at my cloths in order to get some room.

"Focus, Railgun. You're trapping yourself at level five," Kiyama warned. I finally was able to take a deep "breath." I wasn't sure what I was doing.

Everything started to fall apart. The world cracked and chunks of rubble fell but never reached ground. They hung in the air, bouncing off of other bits of debris. Only the alter remained intact. I curled up into a ball on the cold floor.

"You're the…only one…capable of saving…Lain, Railgun. You…can't…fa…il…now," Kiyama said.

Her stretched out words got lost in the blurring world. I was lost deep in the dreamscape. Invisible chains yanked me down to the ground.

"Break…the…barrier…of…your…mind."

Barrier? I'd done it before. Broken it.

But this was different.

No! No! No!

It was the same. It was all in my head. It was always in my head. In my head, I was master. All I need do was assert my control.

My will forced the world around me to return to the way it was when I arrived. I crawled to the altar and used it to stand up. Everything was normal or at least what I thought was normal.

"Everything seems to be in order now. Okay, I'm sending you a program that will take you to Lain."

"What will it look like?"

"How the hell should I know? All I can see is approximately where you are in the system. Whatever you 'see' is whatever your subconscious is using to rationalize the Wired into something you can comprehend. I assume. Okay, here we go," Kiyama stated.

The door leading into the sanctuary opened up. I stepped out into a grand cathedral. Its walls were lined with the most intricate stained glass windows I had ever seen. "Sunlight" filtered through them; illuminating the hundreds of beautifully "crafted" pews. Not another soul was around. I felt engulfed in the serenity of the building.

I walked down to the front door after taking in the majesty for a moment. My footsteps echoed around. The door opened and a flock of pigeons took off. I had apparently built a world based off of Renaissance Italy if the architecture of the city was any indication.

There were a few people wandering about out front in puffy clothing and tights. A lot of them wore bizarre hats as well. It was rather awkward considering I was now dressed in my school uniform. I started down the steps to the street.

Most of the denizens were clumped into small groups, quietly whispering to themselves. Individuals would come and go between the groups. Pigeons occasionally landed by a group and dematerialized into balls of light that were absorbed by people in the group. No one seemed to notice me as I walked out.

A flock of pigeons flew overhead, perfectly following the street. I looked around for Kiyama's program. A ball of light formed at my feet, forcing me to step back.

The light began to take the shape of a bird. It flapped its wings as it solidified into a white dove. It walked up to me, bobbing its head with every step.

"I think it's here," I said.

"Good. Every time you touch it, it will go to the next server on the path it's created. And don't touch anything else, understand? Any disruption will be seen as a hack attempt," Kiyama instructed.

"What happens if I do?"

"Well based on your size and capabilities, I'd say the Avri Units will bring down the very hammer of god to destroy you."

"I thought you didn't have that much faith in the Avri line," I quipped.

"I don't. But if they can do one thing well, it's brute force."

"And what happens if this all does goes to crap?"

"Your body is left effectively brain dead."

"Wow, you didn't think to blunt that even a little?"

"Call it an incentive for you not to screw up. Now get going."

"How freaking cheery," I muttered. I knelt down and poked the dove. What happened to my life? The bird ruffled its feathers and flew off. I followed it down the street for what must have been kilometers. Despite the apparent distance, I didn't feel the least bit tired.

Actually the more I delved into the Wired, the colder, more…dead I felt. I couldn't feel the beating of my heart or the pounding of my head of the fire in my lungs. It wasn't as liberating as one would think. Actually I felt rather scared.

Every other sense that I used on a second by second basis had disappeared. I wanted to panic. I wanted to go back. How was I supposed to continue when everything around me was an illusion?

I pressed on for Lain's sake. The adults started to become less and less frequent. Children replaced them, quickly becoming the majority.

Occasionally I saw a particular girl walking among the children. She wore a black uniform. A somewhat familiar blank expression masked her face. Her brown hair was oddly angled. The right side of her head was covered by hair and the hair on the other side was brushed back. The first time I spotted the girl, she was assisting the children and adults that called for her.

I continued to follow the bird. The place was the strangest but most realistic Renaissance fair I had ever seen.

The dove finally stopped in front of what looked like a hospital. I poked the bird, but it remained still. I poked it a couple more times and it refused to move. Lain had to be inside.

"Doc. Yo doc!" I said to get Kiyama's attention. There was no reply. Probably not good. I stepped inside anyway. There were a few doctors moving around building.

I started to walk by the empty beds where patients were kept in real life. After the beds was a garden courtyard. Lain was lying curled up in a ball. She was wearing a tattered white dress. I walked over to her. She curled up more as I approached. I knelt down next to her.

She was tied down by anachronistic tubes and wires that had ripped out of the ground around her. The girl's eyes were wide and lips quickly mouthing words. Strands of hair shot off everywhere from her head. Where the hell was Kiyama?

Something moved behind me. I turned around to see the girl in the black uniform from earlier standing there. Her head was cocked to the side. A bored, but curious stare was directed at Lain. Her eyes had a bizarre, vacant quality to them that uncomfortably dug under my skin. Her arms hung lazily at her side.

"We know this one," the girl finally said in a dreary monotone.

I scrambled to the side. The girl walked forward and stood over Lain. Was this girl an avatar for…

"You're an Avri aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes, we are Avri Unit β-51," the girl answered without as much as an acknowledging glance to me. "Confirmed, we have seen this one before," she noted.

"What is she?" I asked the Avri.

"We don't know. She is like you but also like us."

"She is not a sister but she feels familiar," another Avri said as she came out of a side door. She appeared exactly the same as the first one I met. The unit went over to Lain. More and more Avri Units entered the room, each trying to look at Lain. They speculated amongst themselves all in the same tone, same voice. It was nauseating to listen to them try to establish consensus.

Theories were proposed and debated. Counter points were brought up and discussed with alarming regularity. The world started to glitch out. Most likely not a good sign. I scooted as close to Lain as I could.

"Lain, can you hear me. We need to get out of here," I hissed into her ear. The girl squirmed a bit.

I looked to the Avri units. "Can you help me? I need to get her out of here," I pleaded to them. They fell silent, their attention focused on me.

"This one requests assistants? We are not sure. This one is like that one, but this one is not like us. We should report this to Root," they all said in unison. I blinked.

"Don't, please," I begged. That was definitely not a good idea.

A silence fell over the programs. Their eyes bore into my very soul. Arguably one of the most literal times that phrase had been used. Their irises started to glow.

Space seemed to vanish between us. I felt one with everything around me. It was bizarre and exhilarating.

I was face to face with an Avri. No. No. It _was_ Avri. I could feel hundreds of churning, analyzing minds form the singular avatar. It stared at me with its glowing eyes.

We were standing in a white chamber, our bodies bare. "This one is foreign to us. Yet this one seeks to help our…our cousin. Why?" Avri said. It spoke with the voice of all

"She is Lain and she is my friend and I wan—need to save her, to bring her back where she belongs."

Avri cocked its head to the side. "The one called Lain, it is your friend? We don't understand," it said.

"She's…very important to me; I want to bring her back to the outside world, outside the Wired."

"We do not understand. There is only the Wired. It is everywhere, touches all things."

I shook my head. "There is a world outside of here. All those people you help live there."

"And Lain can live in place 'outside' the Wired?"

"Yes, I think so."

"We feel Lain also has a place here. Why should we let Lain go when it can be of use here?"

"Because this isn't Lain's world. This isn't good for her. Please."

Avri cocked its head to the side. "Very well, show us how Lain can live 'outside,'" Avri demanded after a moment.

"Alright, but Lain and I need to be at Root headquarters," I said.

"Very well."

I was in front of the cathedral I started at. Three Avri units were above me, standing at the top of the steps standing in front of the great doors. Lain was at my feet. I knelt down.

"Come on Lain, we are almost there," I whispered.

"Mikoto," she mumbled. She rolled over, opening her eyes to me. I lifted Lain up and started up the stairs. It felt like I was picking up a balloon.

The three Avri Units at the top parted way for the two of us to pass. The doors opened. I walked inside and went back to the sanctuary.

I could feel my heart beat again, sort of. It felt more like I was alive again. It was mostly a relief. The three Avri Units remained behind us. I set Lain on the altar. She began to dissolve into the air. In the distance I could hear an alarm go off.

I began to let the world crumble away like when I arrived. The Avri Units didn't seem to notice the destruction. They stared with the same stoic gaze they always had.

It started to feel as if I were shrinking. Claustrophobia took hold. Suffocation over whelmed me. I wanted to claw out of the hell that had engulfed me.

My chest expanded. Air entered my lungs. I could hear the siren much clearer now. I felt strong arms grip my shoulders. Electricity roared from my body only to be negated by the thick plastic suit that I had been dressed in. Some of my rage escaped through my bare right hand. It wasn't enough and was quickly sealed away by a heavy glove.

My unseen assailants dragged me away. They cuffed me to a pipe with my hands above my head. I was able to see the tube where Lain's body was gestating on my left. Root technicians under the oversight of Officer Kimball were monitoring the fluid inside the tube as it drained away.

"I'm a believer in the mantra that the best laid plans are often the worse. But I'm curious, Railgun: how did you screw up this badly?" Kiyama half-sarcastically asked from my right.

I looked over to see Kiyama bound in the same manner as I. "Hey, I didn't do anything!" I shouted in my defense.

"So then what the hell did happened?"

"Nothing, I followed your program to Lain. Only the Avri Units found her first I think," I admitted.

"What did they do?"

"I'm not sure. They seemed curious about her."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, there was a ton of them. They argued and debated about her. It was strange."

"How'd that go?"

"Well they let us leave. But I think I'm regretting that choice now," I said. The fluid had finally drained from Lain's container. The girl had curled up in a ball. The glass began to retract into the main apparatus. Several Anti-Skill officers approached the girl with weapons raised. I watched a technician approach the girl. He quickly detached the umbilical cord and backed away.

Kimball approached us with a walky-talky in hand. "Yes, I have them both. No, she was able to recover Lain," she said. The officer walked forward a bit. She eyed the two of us. "Will do."

She put the radio on her belt. "You two have become a real pain in my ass lately, you know?" she sarcastically bit at us.

"We've got to be better then the brats in your gym class," Kiyama dryly retorted.

"Shut up Kiyama, you're one smart ass comment away from getting deported," Kimball shot back. She looked at me. "As for you, Misaka, the boss wants you put on ice until further notice."

That didn't sound good at all. I was about two seconds from writing off the whole flipping day. "She's getting up!" one of the officers by Lain shouted. The sound of safeties clicking off erupted.

I felt a jolt of electricity hit me. The world slowed down dramatically. With a glance to the left I could see Lain standing up on the pedestal. But I saw her everywhere else too. She was messing with things, pushing over Anti-Skill officers, and other trickster actions. She appeared in front of me and poked my hand cuffs. There was a quiet rage in her eyes.

Time returned to normal. The cuffs around my wrists popped open. Everyone else in the room fell to the ground. Ammo clips slipped out of weapons, clanging on the cold ground. I pulled my hands down and tore off the plastic suit covering me. I rushed to Lain and draped the plastic over her.

Lain looked up at me. She placed a hand on my cheek. "Mikoto," she whispered. I smiled and nodded.

"Okay, okay enough with the wishy-washy emotional crap, you two need to get out of here stat. There is a latter in the back that leads to the sewers. Take back into the city," Kiyama ordered. I nodded in agreement. I grabbed a headset off of a fallen Anti-Skill officer, took Lain's hand, and ran to the back of the chamber. I threw open the hatch and sent Lain down first. I looked back at Kiyama.

"Before you go, I have something for you," the doctor said. She motioned for me to come closer. I tentatively did so. "Around my neck is a USB drive. Take it and give it to Uiharu. She'll know what to do."

I pulled off the necklace and removed the black drive out from under her shirt. "Do you want me to get you out?" I asked. Kiyama just gave me a solemn shake of her head.

"Don't worry about me Railgun, it turns out I have some business to attend to now. Keep her safe for me in the mean time," she calmly said. I nodded and went back to our exit.

I put on the head set to listen in to what Anti-Skill was up to as I started to weld the door shut behind us. All I heard was an automated message. "EP 5-3 Active, EP 5-3 Active."

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: And we are back. This was a long time coming. I've mentioned before that some chapters come to me others don't. This chapter couldn't make up its mind. Sometimes we were on like it was the first night of the honeymoon and other times it wasn't even taking my calls. But enough strange metaphors about my life, let's talk about the chapter!

I'll be the first to admit that I have issues The Matrix Series. But I do appreciate how _The Matrix_ itself works. For most of the nineties and the early aughts the internet was portrayed as some sort of virtual reality. Well, it is actually nothing more than a bunch of electrons flipping tiny switches on silicon boards. Thank you _The Matrix_ for at least not using that stupid trope too.

When I put the scene together between the Avri Units (I'm sorry if that seems odd but Avris is already a name/word) and Misaka, I wanted it to be similar to me having a spiritual/existential moment. As a skeptic, I'd try to hash it out and bring all the weapons of reason and logic to bear against it. That's what I imagine a computer would try to do too.

Well, there is that. Hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review or PM me a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Interested in my original projects? You can check them out on Fiction Press via the link on my Bio page. The prologue to my first project, _Ha-Satan_, is currently up.

Until next time, I want the purple pill {xkcd already did that joke}


	10. Layer X

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer X: EP 5-3

Academy City may have been forty years ahead of the world, but a sewer was still a sewer no matter how advanced a civilization might be. It was dank and grimy and I didn't want to know what was sliding down my back. I was carrying Lain while trying to check my cellphone. Not that there was a chance in hell I was going to get a bar, but I needed something to keep my mind off of the insanity of what just happened.

Thoughts of my conversation with Avri, the revelation about Lain, and whatever Kiyama was up to all bounced around my head. My arms start to strain under Lain's weight. I looked around and set the girl down. I slumped over next to her. Lain curled up against my chest.

I ran my hand through her hair. It was still damp from the tube that Lain had been...reborn from? My quickly fingers recoiled as they passed through her brown locks. Lain's hair didn't…didn't feel real. I wanted to believe it was because the fact that it hadn't dried yet.

But even in the dry parts it still didn't feel natural. Her hair was coarse and plastic-like despite looking so life like. Come to think of it, I her hair never grew all the while she lived with me.

My hand crawled down to Lain's face. I closely inspected her skin. There wasn't a blemish or fault to be found. There was also an unnatural order to her pores.

Lain stirred from her nap and looked up to me with brown eyes. Even her stare had an inhuman nature to it. "Mikoto, what happened? I remember being at the train station and now…now I'm here with you."

"I'm not sure, Lain."

The girl looked away from me. "I had…a dream. You were there and so was someone else. I'm not sure who the other one was," she mumbled. I'm not sure who the other one," she mumbled.

Was she talking about Avri? Did she hear what they said? Lain seemed to have drifted off again. She was examining her hand, running it over the concrete floor, over her leg, and down her face. A sigh passed over her lips. "This isn't my body, is it Mikoto?"

I felt my heart freeze. "What are you talking about?" I stammered out. If what Kiyama said was true, then yes that was technically her body. But I knew full well what she meant but I didn't want her to panic. Not now anyway.

"Nothing feels quite right," she elaborated. Her fingers began to curl, eyes blinking constantly. "I see things, touch things, smell things; but it's like I'm witnessing it all through a lens."

Lain grabbed my shirt. She looked deep into my eyes. "What…am I?" she asked. Her eyes looked at the passing refuse in the sewer water. My arms wrapped tightly around her. Our foreheads were locked together.

"All I know is that _you_ are Lain and that you're the most important person in my life. No matter what comes to pass: _nothing_ will ever change that," I swore to Lain. I backed off of the girl and kept our eyes locked. A plan formed in my head. My hand slipped into my pocket and I clench the drive. I was going to rip off the veil of lies and secrecy right of the face of this city!

A rush of energy pulsed through my body. My muscles were reinvigorated with enough lifted her up again.

We tracked over another kilometer before reaching an exit. I set Lain down again and adjusted the head set I grabbed off the Anti-Skill officer. The droning, automated call for about something called EP 5-3 had ended. Instead there was nothing but static, which limited my options. I wasn't thrilled with the notion of popping my head out of a manhole to come face to face with a rifle.

I started climbing up, my mind churning through what to do. Then it hit me. I put my hand on the metal lid. Electricity began to flow from me into the metal. I focused it and created a sort of electrical radar out of it. The images formed in my head were fuzzy. Air wasn't a great conductor for the kind of fine tuning I needed but it worked. I spent a good two minutes waiting for a disturbance in the electrical field. Nothing stirred. I clambered down and yanked off my shirt, putting it on Lain. I left the plastic rag on the ground as I scooped up Lain, putting her on my back. She clung on tightly as we ascended back up.

I checked the surface again then lifted the lid with a magnetic push. I scrambled up to the surface. I pulled out my phone, grabbing hold of Lain's leg to brace her as I began to run. We seemed to be in District Two. That meant we were in the middle of the general high schools on the island. And our class's tour day was next week.

What I needed was a general spot to hide in plain sight. Unless Anti-Skill really, really wanted to catch us, then we were totally screwed.

The thundering sound of a helicopter forced me into an alley. It hugged the wall the best I could. My heart kept racing as it flew over. I pulled out my cellphone. It was getting full bars. I quickly went to Kuroko's number.

"Pick up. Pick up," I angrily muttered.

"Sissy what's..."

"Shut it, Kuroko. Where are you?"

"Wha...yeah, I'm at the office. Anti-Skill is mobilizing hardcore. Do you know what's going on?" she asked.

"I think I've managed to piss off the powers that be in the city."

"Um wow, that's…"

"Never mind, I need you to meet me and Lain in District Two," I requested. Kuroko was silent for a moment.

"I don't know Sissy. We are on lockdown here," Kuroko said.

"Please, at least help get Lain out of here," I pleaded.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," my friend said.

"We'll be around the main train station. Keep an eye out."

"Got it," she hung up. I pocketed my phone and grabbed Lain's hand. We bolted for the train station. Anti-Skill had a single armored car stationed there and a couple of officer patrolling. They were in armor, without helmets.

No students could be seen around the station. I hung around the corner in the blind spot of the street camera. Anti-Skill set a trap. It had to be the only reason for such an incompetent display.

My pulse pounded second after second as sweat rolled down my back. All my hope was riding on my pink haired friend. There were worse bets in the world I suppose.

I heard a familiar warp to the side and Kuroko ran up to us. "Okay I need you to take Lain as far from here as you can. Use the sewer system if you have to, just get her somewhere safe. Then get Delphi and Uiharu to the same place," I ordered. Kuroko bit her lip and nodded.

"What are you going to do Sissy?" she asked. I peeked around the corner at the Anti-Skill officers still lollygagging in front of the train station. A wave of anger came over me. I wanted to destroy them. Watch them fry by my hand! To send a message to their masters that I was not to be trifled with!

A self-inflected slap across my face banished those thoughts. A lingering concern haunted the back of my mind. I remembered what Dr. Cutter said, that high level Espers tend to develop mental illness. Was I coming down with something?

"I'm going to break Alice Mizuki out of the mental hospital," I bluntly stated. Kiyama may have unveiled what Lain was, but little else. If Lain could remember her past, maybe we'd have a better picture of what was going on.

"Are you crazy?" Kuroko stuttered. That…was a good question. I suppose we were going to find out.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," I reassured my friend. Well it was mostly true. "Alright, on three you grab Lain and run." Kuroko nodded in acknowledgment.

I raised up two fingers, my head just leaning over the edge to watch the Anti-Skill officers. "Two. Three!" I shouted, steeping around the corner. Static bolts began to erupt around my body.

The officers saw me almost immediately. They drew pistols on me. That was unexpected. Granted if they were expecting me, tasers wouldn't have been their first choice.

"Stand down Railgun!" one of the officers shouted. I kept walking towards them. "Stand down!"

One of the officers pulled their trigger. I created a small magnetic storm around me.

The flaw in their decision to use firearms was the simple fact that well...

The bullet ricochet off of my shielding and launched into a wall.

…bullets were made of metal...

Another bullet was shot at me only to wind up in a fate similar to that of its predecessor.

...and metal was my _bitch_.

Their one smart move was the fact that they were using Glocks, so I couldn't just crush the weapons. The officers took a step back. One of them pulled out what looked like a detonator. I bit my lip, ready for whatever they threw at me.

They pressed the button and a silver sphere on a cylinder popped out of the top of the van. Ah, crap. I was forced to my hands and knees. Damn it Kiyama. The officers aimed their weapons at me again.

I strained to lift my head up. My hands had to go to my forehead in order to attempt to use my finger nails to dig into to my brain and rip it out. It only left me face first in the concrete. This wasn't the same thing they used in the asylum. No this one was meant to incapacitate me.

I needed to focus. Negate the field. Sparks erupted all around me. The formulation was coming to me. But I couldn't muster the will to make it reality. The interference was too much. Chewing right at the borders of my mind.

A hand braced my shoulder. It assured me that this was not the end. I forced a barrier around me, creating a sort of funnel that reached the sphere. Such a technique required a tremendous amount of concentration. But now I had a clear shot and creating a bolt of lightning was nothing but pure instinct for me. One charge at the tip of my finger and a simple chain of charges that led up to the orb, set the voltage and the amps. My whim made reality, an arc of lightning spanned the gap in between.

The offending sphere burst into charred scrape. I rose to my feet. One of the officers grabbed their shoulder mounted radio and requested back up. The roar of a helicopter around an apartment complex, just out of my range. A sniper was sitting in the hold, aiming right at me. I nonchalantly raised up another field to repel the assault. But the bullet past through! It hit only a couple of meters behind me.

They were using rubber bullets! Another helicopter came up from behind me. Crap, the bastard set a trap. It seemed the time to run. I turned west for District One and bolted.

The helicopters remained in hot pursuit. Their gunners kept taking shots at me. The initial officers I ran into were also tailing me in their van, staying just outside of my reach.

Sweat coated my skin as my arms pumped faster and faster. A bullet finally struck me on my left shoulder. I flew face first into the concrete. My body went numb as I heard the van stop followed by the sound of boots approaching.

My arms failed to lift me up, crushed by the pain. Another bullet struck my right calf. I screamed in agony. Tears rolled down my face. Fear festered in my core.

I felt something spark inside of me. A quiet snap and a thought. I turned inward, lining up charges along the offending injuries. A stream of electricity raged around my body.

Adrenaline flooded my veins. I rose up like the wisp of smoke of a dying candle. My head seemed to swivel aimlessly around, hell's furry . My eyes spotted a vending machine on the sidewalk. I ripped off the front of the machine by the screws and launched at the goons. The officers were violently slammed to the ground.

I recalled the front of the machine to me, using it to absorb several incoming bullets. It wasn't going to last long. I reinforced my shield with metal from the guts of the machine.

My gut yearned to fight back. Fortunately there were a few quarters in the machine. I brought them to me. I loaded a shot and waited a moment.

I rolled out of my cover and fired. The helicopters were out of my effective range, sitting back at about a hundred and sixty, a hundred and seventy meters. They weren't necessarily out of range, only any hit I made would be yield less than my maximum.

The coin launched from my hand and flew up and just skimmed the side of my target. The contact was still enough to put the chopper into a wild tailspin. It crashed into its companion, sending them to a fiery end on the street. I collapsed my makeshift shield around me to deflect the incoming debris.

After the air was clear of danger I flicked my defense aside and started walking to District One with those stolen quarters clutched in my hands.

My journey to the mental hospital was fairly uneventful. The only sign of activity was the occasional Anti-Skill helicopter hovering a few meters outside of my reach.

I reached the hospital and burst inside. The place was deserted. There was still a hot pot of coffee in the waiting room. I marched over to the wards, destroying the jammer without a moment of hesitation. I ripped off the door to Alice's room. The place was still a mess. Alice was huddled in the corner. She looked up at me with wild eyes.

"Well, well if it isn't the mighty Railgun," the charming, calming voice of a woman said over a hand held radio that was sitting on the floor. "Tell me, Mikoto: what do you think breaking Alice out will accomplish?"

My hand reached down and grabbed the handheld. "Who are you?" I growled.

"Who am I? Well I'd say it doesn't matter, but I suppose it does for the sake of conversation. Call me Caiaphas if you'd please," the woman said.

Caiaphas...I heard that name before. Whispered somewhere on the Wired. "My question still stands, Mikoto," the woman interrupted my thought. I shook my head, firming my grip on the radio.

"I'm going to find the truth about Lain. Alice will fill in the gap in Lain's memory and I'll finally know what the hell is going on in this damn city, _Caiaphas_," I spat.

The woman let out a snickering laugh. "Even if Lain really did know 'what the hell' was going on before her memory was wiped, Alice still wouldn't be of much use to you. Especially now thanks mostly to Kiyama and a little bit to me. But just a sliver because I had no idea she was up to, so you can't blame me too much," she cackled.

"I don't believe you," I shouted. She was setting up a ruse. Whoever this Caiaphas woman was, she knew I was only moves away from a brilliant checkmate. Whatever the masters of Academy City were hiding was going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the light.

"That's fine. You are under no obligation to believe a word I say. But since you are determined to follow this course of action, let me give you a warning: do not think that you will win this fight. No matter what power you wield, it will not be enough," she calmly addressed in a polite but icy tone.

"You've overestimated yourself," I countered.

"Please, Mikoto. Walk out of the hospital alone, right now. Place your hands on your head and surrender to Anti-Skill."

"It's over Caiaphas. Whatever your plans are, they're finished. You've lost," I declared. I heard a sigh from the woman.

"Very well then, Ms. Misaka. From this moment on, any blood spilled will be on your hands." The radio went dead. Her words didn't bother me in the slightest. Whoever she was, she was soon going to be a number in the international prison system. I set it down and went over to Alice. I knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Can you move?"

Alice nodded. I helped her up. We quickly left the facility, running through backstreets in an attempt to throw the helicopters off our scent. I pulled out my phone once they were gone and called for Kuroko. Hopefully she and Lain were still safe.

"Sissy, are you safe?" she asked in hushed whisper.

"Yeah, I have Alice," I answered in a similar tone.

"Good. I've done what you asked. Give me a minute and I'll get you here."

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: Mental illness was inevitably going to show up, as both a theme in Lain and something I referenced earlier. For now I'm going to focus on Misaka's decline into a sociopath. In the mean time I changed up chapter three a bit so Misaka wouldn't be insanely powerful, just extremely. Why? Because KE = .5*m*v^2, that's why.

I've found the most fun I've had writing as of late have been the snippets of Caiaphas. I know that she hasn't shown up a lot, but I think that's why I enjoy writing her. It also helps keep the antagonist interesting.

So as we're entering the home stretch, there is still a lot to do yet. I'm excited.

Interested in another portrayal of Lain? I've started up a co-op project crossing over Lain and the MCU. You can find it here: s/11397285/

Until next time, video killed the radio star {but their sentence got commuted}


	11. Layer XI

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer XI: The Q Source

Computers were simple. They were nothing but layers upon layers of cold hard logic; zeros and ones that, when read a certain way, represented data. Such elegance powered the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world, which in turn operated the most advanced city in the world.

When a computer presented a problem, it could be quickly fixed. Especially for someone with my level of skill. There were a thousand different ways to solve a given situation, and they were all valid barring certain restraints.

People were not simple. They were an intricate web of contradictions, emotions, and motives playing off of other intricate webs of contradictions, emotions, and motives. Each a crude, cunning creature that worked together to create the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world, to operate the most advanced city in the world.

When a person presented a problem, there was hardly ever a quick fix. I definitely wasn't qualified to handle them. Worse yet, there were a billion ways to respond but all of them might be completely wrong.

Despite my lack of people skills, I was drawn to Judgment almost since I arrived. I always looked up to them. A lot of the younger students did. We live in a city with a distinct lack of adults, and none of those adults were Espers so it made sense to turn to what amounted to the members of the world's most well outfitted hall monitor organization.

I had a lot to thank Judgment for. Mostly a chance to befriend Kuroko. Without her I would never met Mikoto Misaka and…and Lain. The mysterious girl named Lain. She was odd to say the least and not entirely in the quirky way.

Lain…it felt like she wasn't there half the time. Aloof was a good way to describe her presence. Ironically, my life had slowly begun to orbit that strange little girl. Now I was hiding in the city sewer system with said girl and her custom built computer.

Kuroko had left to get Misaka and that Alice girl that Kuroko and Misaka met during the mall disturbance. Lain was wearing an oversized shirt compared to her slight frame. It appeared to be the only thing that she was wearing. Fortunately Kuroko brought her some real cloths for when she…woke up. It didn't sound right to call it that. She was in some wide eyed, catatonic trance.

Her lifeless brown eyes creepily stared at me and her computer. The hairs on the back of my neck couldn't stand up much straighter. I continued to hook up her computer back to the Wired.

Delphi was not a normal PC by any stretch of the imagination. It was the kind of machine that everyday hackers like me couldn't even dream about. Things stirred bellow during my first few minutes of working on it. Fortunately I was alone. After that bout of embarrassment, I got to the task at hand and began trying to build a picture of what was going on.

Nothing felt right about…well everything. There had been a chill in the air ever since Anti-Skill started locking down the city. Judgment officers were order to their stations then locked inside, under guard. Even the Avri Units weren't behaving. I tried to call for one, but all I got was static.

That prompted an examination of Roots logs. I noted an odd feature of the log. The last entry was about three hours ago. It said that command of the organization was temporarily given to Anti-Skill. Which led to a more puzzling problem: Anti-Skill had been fairly quiet over the last few hours. The last order recorded was a dispatch to all officers not long after Root's log ended. It read: Epsilon Protocol 5-3 engaged, followed by an order to report to stations and await further orders.

I tuned into the radio frequencies Anti-Skill used. There was nothing but static. My thumb started to twirl. Anti-Skill and Judgment were supposed to work together. So why didn't I know about these Epsilon Protocols?

When I went looking for them, I found nothing. Not even a fringe site or forum came up. The only things that did come up were bits of unrelated junk from a variety sources.

I heard a weird whoosh behind me. Another followed it. I turned around to see a girl standing there. She was Japanese, with long brown hair and a wild look in her eyes. The girl looked around, finally settling on Lain.

Kuroko popped back to our little base with Misaka. Lain sprang up, locking eyes with her. I thought things would lighten up once Misaka arrived. But the room only felt colder. The girl's face couldn't pick a mood. It shifted between half a dozen different emotions, finally settling on a blank expression.

Misaka walked forward, brushing past the new girl and Kuroko. She stopped in front of me and reached into her pocket. Her hand pulled out something. She handed it to me. It was a flash drive? I looked up at her.

"See what you can do with this," Misaka muttered. My eyes blinked several times. I looked at the grey device.

My lower lip slipped between my teeth. I wasn't sure what to make of it. My attention was stolen by Lain and the new girl's first interaction. The new girl held her left hand up with her fingers spread. Her eyes were shimmering even in the limited light of our base.

Lain was curiously gawking at the girl. Her head cocked side to side, brow scrunched up in pondering. The new girl stepped forward.

"Alice," Lain whispered.

"Lain," Alice replied. Lain raised her right hand and locked it with Alice's left hand.

Kuroko looked confused at the strange performance. Misaka watched in a cool appreciation, arms crossed over her chest.

Alice placed her right hand on the side of Lain's face. Lain began to shake. Her face twitched. Misaka had started to claw into arms with her nails.

A horrific scream bellowed out of Lain's mouth. It stopped every now and again at odd intervals only to pick up with similar veracity after a breath. Eventually Alice got into the act too.

Misaka dropped to her knees, her hands now trying to reach into her head. Kuroko was hovering over her, telling her something to reassure her. Sweat poured from the skin of Lain and Alice, dripping to the floor. Blood vessels popped out of Lain's forehead.

Everything fell silent. Eerie, endless silence. Lain collapsed to the ground with Alice. Misaka finally got off of the ground after a moment. She hobbled over to me. "Uiharu…for…for the love of god: find out what's on that drive," she hissed.

"I—wha…what was that?" I whispered. It was mostly meant for myself, but Misaka quickly grabbed my shoulder and shook her head. There was something in her eyes. A primal anger burned behind them.

"Don't ask questions just figure out what's on the damn drive…please," the older girl ordered. I nodded meekly and quickly plugged in the drive. Misaka wandered back over to Lain. She knelt down, embracing Lain. Kuroko took Alice over to the bundle of sheets that we had gathered to use as our bed.

A window popped up on Delphi's screen, reminding me of my current job. It was a prompt for a very long password. I couldn't help but sigh. I reached into my backpack and pulled out my own drive.

Once plugged in I opened it. The drive was a toolbox of material I used in cracking into things on computers. I had a gut feeling this wasn't going to be easy. As I started to dig, my gut realized this wasn't going to be easy. Fortunately, this would provide a nice escape from whatever weirdness that was starting to take over my life.

Whoever encrypted this thing deserved a prize. Even Turing would have struggled with this one. But he didn't have a pair of Oracle Processors at his command. Fortunately I did, which would cut some tasks down from hours to a matter of minutes.

As the hours dragged on, I started to wish that life were more like the movies. The password would be something simple and easily deduced with merely passing knowledge of the person whose machine we were trying to crack. Alas, whoever owned this drive understood the concept of digital security. From what I managed to skim off the drive, it became apparent this was a Root drive. About seven years old based on the dates in a couple of files. They weren't particularly interesting, just uploaded photocopies of requisition forms sent to the city board.

Eventually I pulled out my spiral. I began to write out hypotheses and visualize problems. The longer I worked on Delphi, the less I felt in the real world. It was like I was standing between the Wired and reality.

But existentialism would have to be put on hold as I reached the end. I found the password. It had only taken…eight hours. Neat.

I opened up the drive's contents. It was loaded with dozens of folders. The only two executable files on the top level were videos named One and Two. I loaded up the first video and turned around. Misaka was still holding Lain. The girls were like a statue. Kuroko was looking over her phone.

I got up and placed my hand on her shoulder. She shot her head around, eyeing me with tired pupils. "We're in," I said. Misaka picked up Lain and walked over to the computer with me. Kuroko joined us as well. I started the video, turning up the volume.

The video started. The picture started with a Japanese woman dressed in business casual under a lab coat with frazzled, dyed blonde hair sitting in an office playing with an unlit cigarette in her hand. Her eyes were hung with major stress lines. She took a deep breath and put her smoke down. She straightened up her posture.

"Who I am shouldn't be important, but for the official record: my name is Dr. Harumi Kiyama. I have spent the past four years working for the Board of Academy City and Root. If I gave you the drive containing this video then it means I believe the time is right to take down the Board for its crimes. Otherwise: I'm either already dead or awaiting to become dead. In which case feel free to go f—"

The video cut with a censor beep to come back with the woman sitting up straighter, her cigarette gone. She cleared her throat. "This drive contains the evidence I've compiled so far and probably more. You should be aware that releasing these documents will have huge ramifications for Academy City. People will lose their jobs, the children will be interned, and all other sorts of hell will be unleashed. It is a steep price, I know. But we have to be stopped. Each folder in this drive is a collection of documents related to specific experiments I've managed to get and is accompanied by a video that gives a synopsis of what is in it."

The player closed. I then loaded the second video. Misaka and I leaned in as Kiyama returned to the screen. Her hair was shorter and mostly dark brown, with the tips of her hair now faded blonde. She was also far more frayed and wore an outfit similar to the first video. A weird looking pen with a…mouth piece was hanging around her neck. Her eyes wearily shifted every which way.

"Okay hopefully this will work," she mumbled before clearing her throat. "Hello, Railgun." I felt Misaka dig her nails into my back.

"I know that you've wanted the truth from me and that I've been less than forthcoming to you. Now I hate be a bitch, but I'm just not going to tell you. It's not that I don't want to. Believe me; I've been looking for a proper confessor for the better part of six years now. But it's quite simple really, I'm not going to tell you because I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. What I've done, what _we've_ done is indefensible and I don't want you to look like a fool in some vain attempt to 'protect' my honor."

Misaka ripped even further into my shoulder. I tried not to squirm because I felt a wave a static run down my back. I felt Kuroko try to steady Misaka.

"Hopefully once you see the trial, you'll understand. So please get this drive to the UN, then you can learn as much as you can stomach," she said. "But before I go, I want you to do one more thing for me Railgun: once you deliver the evidence, I want you to take Lain and run. Go back to Japan and try to live out the most normal life you can. If anyone deserves it, it's you two." The video closed and Misaka released me. She started to pace around the space.

Kuroko tried to consul her. She was surprisingly restraint in not laying on the sexual undertones she usually employed with Miaka.

I began to look over the files on the drive, in a mood that I could only describe was macabre curiosity. They had odd names: Radio Noise, Aphrodite Initiative, Next Avatar, GECK, and alike. The one I stopped on was simply labeled PLHC. It caught my curiosity, what can I say. I entered the file and started the video. The other girls stopped their activity and returned to watch.

It started. Kiyama gave a brief introduction to the experiment. It was headed someone called Caiaphas, whom Kiyama referred to as a she. Apparently this Caiaphas was trying to turn the city's number one Level Five, a Russian boy referred to only as Accelerator, into…well a living particle accelerator.

Then the video switched over to footage of the experiment. Oddly Lain was there with him, her hair the same as it was when we first met. As the video continued, I felt my stomach violently churn as the experiment continued.

Image after image came up.

The screams. The cries for mercy. All unheard.

My body began to violently quake. Eventually I had to find a bag to vomit in. I looked up to find Misaka blankly staring at the screen. Her face betrayed not even the slightest hint of emotion.

It was a stark contrast to Kuroko, who had a hand over her mouth and a stream of tears flowing from her eyes.

Misaka finally turned to me. Her eyes were brown voids. "What do you feel…right now?" she asked.

"What?" I half whispered, half hissed.

"How did that video make you feel?" Misaka begged.

"I…horrible, sick…why?" I was able to respond. Misaka looked back to the screen.

"I didn't feel anything. Only anger when I saw what they did to Lain. But outside that…nothing," she said. Misaka dropped to her knees. "No...no…no. This is wrong. This is all wrong. I am in control. I am in control. I should feel something more. I'm not sick. I'm not sick!" she began to mutter in a panicked monotone.

I snuck back over to Delphi, quickly closed the video and the file directory, and then took the drive out. I pocked the drive. If the rest of the videos and files were even half as bad as that one, then I had a duty to turn it over to the authorities.

"Sissy what's happening?" Kuroko asked.

"Cutter said I...am fine. Cutter said I am fine," Misaka repeated, retaining that same eerie tone.

I stood up and looked around our dank headquarters. My heart skipped a beat. "Where is Lain?" I asked. The whole room shook with the sound of a massive explosion above.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>AN: When I was putting this chapter together, I wanted to emphasize the horror. Not enough to derail the tone of the story, but to add some more...unsettling elements to the mix. Now the best way to tap into horror is to play with humanity's greatest weakness: our need for cognitive closure. We need to see things in order to rationalize them, to complete the puzzle if you will. And that is where the best horror writers excel. By being vague and giving just a taste of what lurks in the shadows, they feed into our need to know.

To help my own attempt, I again shifted perspective. I won't annoy you with another perspective is important rant (but it is). Any who, I thought Uiharu would be the best way to go about this.

Until next time, I got nothing {Just like every other day}


	12. Layer XII

The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of _The Serial __Experiment_...

Layer XII: I Am that I Am

I thought I was in the right. I thought I made the correct decision. I thought Alice was the ultimate key to unlock the secrets of Academy City.

I was wrong.

For when I united Alice and Lain; I saw not a great, detailed picture of the underworking of the city.

No, I saw shards. Fragments of memory set on an infinite loop. Memories of nothing but pain and inhuman misery inflicted on dozens of children. Little could have been made from those shards. But as I meditated on them with Lain in my arms, a common motif emerged: two women in lab coats that stood kilometers above Lain. The pair beamed down a wicked grin to the scenes they were in. I quickly arrived at the conclusion that they must have been that Caiaphas woman and…that bitch Kiyama.

From what I gathered Lain was nothing more than experiment. Kiyama failed to mention any of the things I saw.

What I wanted more than anything after that was for my visions to be false. I could not _accept_ that as reality.

Then Uiharu unlocked the drive Kiyama gave to me. I hoped that…that what was in there would be something to refute what Lain showed me. All we seemed to have found was nothing but possible conformation.

The problem was, as I watched that video I felt hollow. While what they did to Lain filed me with rage...I felt nothing for the boy. No spark of any emotion came to me as I watched his body contorted and mangled itself. Even as blood spewed from his mouth and he begged at the top of what remained of his lungs for the cold embrace of death, I could hardly muster the semblance of a feeling.

There was little time to dwell on the development as there was an explosion above and Lain was missing.

"Uiharu, watch after Alice. Come on Sissy," Kuroko took charge. My body couldn't respond. "Sissy!"

"Right," I finally said. I picked up the headset I took from the Anti-Skill officer. It sounded like a life broadcast of a battlefield.

"It's some kind of monster!"

"Oh my go—"

"Another chopper down, send a rescue team stat!"

"Nothing's getting through. Fall back to check point delta!"

I turned it off. "This might not turn out so well," I warned Kuroko. "You might want to stay behind."

"Not on your life. I'll be at your side until the end," she said. I nodded.

We went to the nearest exit and ascended up the latter to the surface. The manhole covering was logged into the second story of a nearby building. The street was ripped apart, the asphalt was cracked with craters that formed a long trail. The light posts lining the street were twisted into knots and jagged bolts. Sparks and flames were spurting on all over the place.

A wing of helicopters rushed over us, following the path of the craters. They broke up after a few dozen meters. The vehicles veered around a point then regrouped after they past said point and continued on.

There was a thunderous rumble from down the way. Kuroko grabbed my hand. I had to resist the urge to retract it as I suddenly found myself on a roof top well over a hundred meters down from where we started.

Teleporting left one with an odd sensation of vertigo. But at least you knew that..._enough_ of you got near-instantaneously moved through space time. A rather terrifying prospect that I'd rather _not_ talk about. Unfortunately the only worthwhile alternative topic was the sounds of destruction coming from down the street.

Kuroko looked to the commotion. "What do you think?" she asked.

"We have our work cut out. Let's get a closer view," I suggested. Kuroko grabbed my hand again and we were right on top of the problem. The source of storm was in fact Lain. Her cloths were now shredded. Only her odd hair style was still intact.

Lain's eyes were now glowing. Each step forward she took released what sounded like a small explosion and added another crater for the moonscape below. Water shot out of a damaged fire hydrant, flooding the street. A couple of abandoned busses were smashed through the front windows of nearby buildings. Wires were ripped out of the ground, supplying a sharp electric undertone for the symphony of destruction playing out.

"Okay, you distract her and get her to turn around. I'll try to talk her down," I said.

"I should avoid trying to hurt her right?" Kuroko sarcastically asked.

"Just be gentle," I quipped. Kuroko dropped me off on the ragged ground and teleported up in midair. She threw some stones in Lain's direction. The rocks burst into fragments seconds after being launched.

Kuroko dropped to the ground. Lain kept going. I rushed over to Kuroko. She started to get up.

"What is going on?" she mumbled.

"Don't joke around," I said.

"Yeah, yeah," she coughed. "But what the hell is she doing?"

"I'm not sure but I've seen her do something like this before. I think. But nothing on this scale," I admitted.

"Why don't you get her attention and I'll just sit here and watch?" Kuroko suggested. I helped her finally stand up.

It wasn't a terrible plan. I picked up a couple of shards of scrap metal and approached Lain. The shards were a bit bigger than what I was used to launching but it would have to do.

I took aim just to the right of Lain. My heart started to pound as my subconscious began to make the calculations. That sensation of flying came back. Reality was starting to bend to my will.

The shot launched forward. It rocked towards Lain.

The girl turned around as the shard reached her. The metal suddenly shot up into the air at ninety freaking degrees! I took a step back as Lain started walking towards me.

That was…what? How? The metal was going faster than the human eye could track. The calculations needed to stop such a thing so precisely with telekinetic powers would probably induce a coma. But Lain didn't even break a sweat doing something even harder!

I finally got a good look at her. Lain had entered some sort of serene rage. There was no malice or anger to be seen; only an ungodly determination. She started walking towards me. The actual destruction in her wake continued to follow her.

"Come on Lain! It's Mikoto!" I shouted to her. The girl ignored my greeting. "Please stop!"

My begging did nothing to slow her down. The storm of debris that was raging around her began to grow. I twirled the other way and rushed to Kuroko. I swung the girl on my back. Sure having her on my back made running through an obstacle course of a destroyed road a hell of a lot harder, I wasn't going to leave her to the mercy of whatever was possessing Lain.

"I don't think talking her down is going to be an option, Sissy," Kuroko hissed as I made it as far as I could go. I set her down and started taking nice deep breaths, bracing myself against my knees with my head almost between my legs. Lain was making her way towards us at an alarming rate.

A helicopter started buzzing somewhere behind us. Kuroko straightened up a bit. She watched as every simple step Lain took added to the multitude of destruction already around her. Fires started to burst out all over the place.

"What…what is she?" she finally asked. I shook my head.

"Some kind of god?" I speculated. At that point I couldn't think of anything else that could stop Lain. She had almost caught up to us.

I heard a light mocking laugh erupt from behind me followed by the click of boots. "There is a slight problem with your hypothesis, Mikoto," the oddly sweet sounding voice of Caiaphas said. I saw a white lab coat and black boots glide past me.

"Gods are made by man," Caiaphas continued. She stopped a few meters in front of me, allowing me to see the small cascade of scarlet locks that made up her hair. I saw her head cock to the side in my direction. "And if you know anything about things made by man: they _break_." Her last few words were said with a spine tingling venom that only the deaf could miss.

Caiaphas turned her head back to Lain. "Lain Unit 26: requesting Priority Access. Permission: Caiaphas," she mechanically barked.

Lain stopped moving, the junk swirling around her fell to the ground in a cacophony. "Access denied. User Caiaphas no longer has permission to use this unit," Lain quietly shot back.

There was a creepy feel to watching those two talk. On the one hand I wanted Lain to stop, on the other it freaked me out to see someone use a human being like a computer.

"Oh look, Kiyama tried to lock me out. How cute," Caiaphas purred. "Lain Unit 26: Update Current Users from Lifespark Database. Permission Code: Aphrodite."

"Permission Code Accepted. Lain Unit 26 updating current users from Lifespark Database," Lain said in a hypnotic state. "Update complete. User Caiaphas has permission to use this unit."

"Tisk, tisk my dear Harumi," Caiaphas quietly mused to herself. She sighed. "Lain Unit 26: Execute subroutine: Odinsleep."

Lain started to quake. Blood started running out of her mouth and nose after a few seconds. Her eyes stopped glowing and were now heavily bloodshot. The girl unceremoniously collapsed to the ground. Her eyes stared at me, begging me to do something.

"And that Mikoto is why when you go screwing with nature: always build in redundant backups. Kiyama never understood that," Caiaphas matter-o-factly said. She started walking towards Lain. I got up and bolted after her.

I felt a sharp pain in my neck after a step or two. I reached around and yanked out a plastic dart. My legs started to feel heavy. I asked. Drowsiness cast a spell on me. I collapsed to my knees. Kuroko rushed to my aid. "No, take Lain and run," I grunted. Kuroko gave me an incredulous look. "If you love me then do as I said!"

Kuroko nodded and reluctantly teleported to Lain. The two disappeared. I gave myself a jolt of lightning to wake me up. It was enough to get me back on my feet.

Caiaphas shook her head. "You don't know when to quit do you Mikoto?" she asked. She looked up at the sky. Another dart landed on my back.

"You should have surrendered when I gave you the chance," Caiaphas lamented.

"What do you want with me?" I croaked out as the world faded to black.

Caiaphas gently turned around. Her crystal blue eyes glimmered with pride. She cocked her head to the side and with a girlish grin she said to me before everything went away, "Well to save the world of course!"

_Fade to Black..._

* * *

><p>AN: Well that about wrap things up for _The Serial Experiment_. I really loved working on this an appreciate everyone who ever clicked on this title. When I started this way back in November I wasn't expecting too many people to ever check this out.

Special thanks has to go to:

demonicDRAMAqueen (of course)

PocketSnails (Hope you liked it)

Bloodydemon666 (See Lain the Avenger)

KuletXCore (Always nice to see you)

And of course everyone who Followed and Favorited TSE while I was still working on it.

You guys really helped. To anyone who favorites or writes a review after this: thank you as well.

* * *

><p>The Bluefire Phoenix presents...<p>

A Sneak Peak at:_ Project: Life Spark: The Epsilon Protocols_

"Attention students of Academy City."

A helicopter patrols the sky above Academy City. Anti-Skill officers are everywhere on the streets. Students carefully walked the sidewalks, evading the gaze of the Anti-Skill officers.

"Anti-Skill has declared a state of emergency. Please obey any orders given to you."

Pandora walked through the open area of an office building. Her cape flowed behind her, her plasma sword ignited in her hand. The light from sword cast eerie shadows across the room.

"All use of Esper Abilities is forbidden. Anyone caught in violation will be placed in lockdown until after the end of the emergency."

Kuroko was braced against her knees not far away. Her gaze turned away from the bright sword. Sweat poured out of her skin.

"Thank you and have a nice day!"

Lain's empty brown eyes stared down at a chess board with a game in progress. She held the white king in her hand.

"We made a promise didn't we?"

A large lab filled with various equipment used for measuring things related to electricity filled its tables and corners. Centered between the two main tables was a large cylinder connected to monitoring devices.

"Yes I remember."

Lain set down her king and picked up a her queen's bishop. She used it to capture a black rook.

"Then help me..."


End file.
